On March 3, 2020 a vicious late-winter tornado touched down in Nashville, Tennessee, hop-scotched along I-40 east and destroyed homes in the suburbs of Cookeville, Tennessee. There 18 persons died in just a few minutes of horror.
Fortunately my sister Becky Holliman Payne and her family who live in that Cumberland Plateau community escaped the violence and quickly joined hundreds of others in providing relief to those afflicted. A long scheduled trip to visit cousins and our old home places in Alabama had been planned with my sister, Alice Holliman Murphy and me. We were to fly from our domiciles in Texas and Pennsylvania respectively to Nashville on March 5th and then drive south.
As the Nashville airport was open and professional first responders were busy at work, we decided to go ahead with our plans. We met that afternoon of the 5th, and the three of us drove to Florence, Alabama.Little did we know that one storm was behind us and another, more dangerous, approaching!
The next morning, we spent much of the day with our first cousin, Bob Daly, son of Robert W. Sr. and Vena Holliman Daly at his home north of Florence. His home is really a nature conservancy where for decades Bob has nurtured his 40 acres as a wildlife park.
Pictured are Alice, Becky and Bob.
A Ph.D. in biology and botany from Auburn, Bob taught for decades at the University of North Alabama and also conducted hundreds of environmental studies for governmental and corporate agencies. It is not an exaggeration to say that Bob is one of the most knowledgeable persons living concerning the flora, fauna and animal life of the Tennessee River Valley.
His home, which he shares with his wife, Joy, his high school sweetheart from Irondale, Alabama, reflects Bob's taste in outdoor life. The home feels like a comfortable forest lodge with wooden paneling, chandeliers of antlers and walls festooned with scenes of wildlife and southern history.
Below the Daly 'lodge' in the woods of North Alabama.
Outside on the grounds, two cousins, now seniors in life, reminisce on how we used to hunt arrow heads along Alabama river bottoms and scorpions under the scrub oak trees on the Daly farm in Irondale, oh say 60 years ago or so!
Below are photographs I have saved (and hundreds and hundreds more of family) from the various albums. Here is a quick trip down memory lane of Bob and family in the 1940s and 50s. The initial picture is of Bob in the sailor's hat, one year old me and my mother, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman (1923-2015), on the front lawn at 2300 N. 3rd Avenue in Irondale, our grandparents house.
The one below is damaged, but shows Bob on the left, Pam Holliman in the center, Ralph and Motie Holliman's first born. Three year old me on the right. The year is 1949. Again photographed at Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman's Irondale home. Judging from the way Pam and I are dressed, this must have been a Sunday in the summer.
Below, Bob, Becky and Glenn at Daytona Beach, Florida in 1955. Grandmother Holliman had died in May 1955, and the Dalys and Bishop Hollimans took Ulyss Holliman on vacation. I remember a day of fishing with my grandfather, father and Bob. Below we are digging for sand fleas.
Finally, Bob with his father, Robert W. Daly, Sr. (1901-1959) and his mother, Vena (1909-1990). The family loved to visit Florida and fish. These experiences no doubt helped develop Bob's life long interest in biology.
After the better part of the day with Bob, and significantly increasing our knowledge of nature's mysteries, my sisters and I bid goodbye to our very knowledgeable first cousin, and drove on to Gadsden, Alabama where we lived from 1960 to 1964. More on our trip in the next blog. - GNH
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