An Alabama Family in World War II, Part 42

Melton falls Ill and is Evacuated from France

From early February to September 1944, Melton P. Holliman, (1908-1958),the first born child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, moved from training in the United States to the European theater of war.  From his letters we know that Melton understood the status of a ‘replacement’ was a wretched position  in the Army.  From Camp Barkley in Texas, where Melton trained as a pharmacist and medic, to transit camps in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he arrived in England in early April. 

There he languished somewhere in the U.K. until July 31, 1944, 55 days after D-Day.  The rapid advance of the Allied Armies at that time resulted in yet another replacement camp, sleeping on the ground for over a month in a shared pup tent near St. Lo, Normandy.

Right, Melton in England

General George Patton’s 3^rd Army roared through France in August, helped liberate Paris and moved faster than gasoline supplies could keep up with the Sherman tanks rolling toward the German border.  Melton boarded a truck and with other G.I.’s raced east, passing through towns filled with joyous French people celebrating their liberation from the Nazi regime. 

On September 1^st, he arrived at the 94^th Medical Battalion near Verdun, the World War I battlefield. For several months, still sleeping in a pup tent and slogging in the rain and mud, he served as a dental assistant.  Finally with his training, he began to serve wounded soldiers and his own morale soared.

His mail caught up with him, but the nights in October grew cold and the rain kept falling on his primitive sleeping arrangements.  He wrote that autumn that he never felt better, but on November 7^th  he went on sick call and was soon hospitalized.

My Uncle Melton was not a young man, then 36 years old, a Camel cigarette smoker, and for months had suffered with chronic bronchitis.  He did not want to worry his family in letters home from France, but for several months he had been having dizzy spells.  By November 17^th, he was evacuated to England to be further examined.   Diagnosed with high blood pressure, he faced the danger of a stroke. 

He was still in England on December 10^th,  but returned to the States immediately afterward by either air transport or fast ship to an Army hospital on Staten Island, New York before Christmas.  There Ida and Patti rushed to his bedside and stayed for four days.  While with them his dizzy spells continued.   His odyssey ended January 2, 1945 at Foster Army Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.  There his mother and wife were able to visit.  By February 1945 he had his first leave in over a year and reunited with his family in Irondale, Alabama

 

Right, reunited with his beloved family, Ida and Patti in the swing at 2300 3^rd Avenue North in Irondale, Alabama, February 1945.  Out of his uniform, Melton relaxed in civilian clothes.

It was on this visit that my father, Bishop Holliman (1919-2018), on leave from the Navy, introduced his soon to be bride, my mother, Geraldine Stansbery to the family.

Above, left to right, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman (1923-2015),  Mary Daly Herrin, Vena Holliman Daly (1910-1990) and Pearl Caine Holliman (1887-1955) at the Daly House on a chilly February day in Alabama.

Below, two brothers, both still on active duty and on leave, Bishop (1919- 2018) and Melton (1908-1958) on a warm winter day in early 1945.

Melton would spend the rest of his war at the hospital in Mississippi on light duty.  As with millions of others that year, he was discharged and returned to his civilian career, in his case with Wythe Pharmaceuticals.  He had done his duty, but at the cost of precious months away from his wife and child, Patti.  And his health was never the same….

A Gathering at Mary Daly Herrin's Home

by Glenn N. Holliman

Several weeks ago, my father, Bishop Holliman, b. December 17, 1919, in Irondale, Alabama, returned to his childhood home to visit his niece, Mary Daly Herrin.  Dad now lives in Avilla, Indiana, just north of Fort Wayne.  That is the childhood home of his wife, Ellen Parks Cox Holliman. They have been married for sixteen years.

While I posted photographs that Mary's son David had emailed me, David's sister, Linda Herrin Bradley sent several more.  Taken together, these deserve a more permanent place on this blog.

On the left, right to left, Ellen, Bishop, Patti Holliman Hairston and Linda Herrin Bradley. 

Patti is the daughter of Melton (1908-1958) and Ida Hughes Holliman (1905-1995) and Linda, the daughter of  E.C. (1930-2015) and Mary Daly Herrin. Mary is far right in the right picture.


Patti and Mary are first cousins, both with numerous grandchildren. Mary, a matriarch of the extended family, is the daughter of Robert W. and Vena Holliman Daly. She is the first born grandchild of Ulyss (1884-1965) and Pearl Caine Holliman (1888-1955). Ulyss and Pearl were born in Fayette County, Alabama, married there in 1906, farmed and around 1917 moved to Irondale, Alabama.

Irondale was a growing suburb of Birmingham, a city then exploding in population due to its steel industry and World War I. Ulyss, who had wood working experience, went to work for the Birmingham Electric Company which ran the street car lines.  The trolleys were then wood frame with wooden benches.  In 1921, a large family house was constructed at 2300 3rd Avenue North in Irondale sans painting and running water. There tw0 children were born and seven grew to adulthood.  This writer in 1946 spent the first two weeks of his life in the house with Grandmother Holliman teaching my mother, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (1923-2015) how to be take care of a wiggly, loud infant.

The day before the above pictures were taken, Ralph Holliman (b 1924) and his wife, Laura, living in Gulf Shores, Alabama drove up to Birmingham for the reunion.  Bishop and Ralph are pictured below.  The ladies left to right are Ellen, Bishop's wife, Mary and Laura Mills Holliman, Ralph's wife.

In the picture below, Mary's two sons - David (b 1964), left, and Clayton Herrin (b 1953), far right, join their great uncles in group pose.

Bishop and Ralph are the two surviving children of Ulyss and Pearl who had seven children between 1908 and 1924.  The children who have passed away are Melton, Vena (1909-1990), Euhal (1912-1989), Loudelle (1914-1998) and Virginia (1922-2011).

Writers have called the generation of these seven children 'The Greatest Generation' because they survived the Great Depression, fought World War II and helped build the largest economy in the world.  To all my aunts and uncles, I tip my hat and thank them for raising the 18 grandchildren of Ulyss and Pearl!