How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 25

by Glenn N. Holliman


More Letters and News of the Home Front....


World War II finally ended the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Unemployment fell to record levels ending a decade of public assistance and public work programs.  By the fall of 1942, only 1.5 million out of a labor force of 54 million were unemployed, and many of these moving to other jobs or waiting to enter the armed services.  

The letters written by the Hollimans, an Irondale, Alabama family reflect the growing stresses and changes brought on by war time demands and the emerging role of women.  Men were being drafted, and more and more women took jobs men had held or went to work in war plants.  Older values and customs came under stress and anxieties and issues were often discussed in the home front letters. 

Stores remained opened later to deal with women shoppers, now workers, who could not visit stores during day time hours.  Pearl Caine Holliman (1887-1955), left, wrote to her son in the Navy, Bishop Holliman, that "The Dalys (her daughter, Vena, granddaughter Mary Daly Herrin  and son-in-law, Robert Daly, Sr.) and Ralph (Holliman, her youngest son) have gone shopping tonight.  You know the stores stay open till 9 o'clock (in Birmingham)."

Husband Ulyss S. Holliman (1884-1965), above, "has to work 6 days a week now and 9 hours per day.  He says they have more wrecked street cars than they have had since he has been with the B'ham  Electric Company."

One of the millions of women who went to work was Virginia Holliman Cornelius (1922-2011), Pearl's youngest daughter, a brilliant graduate of Shades-Cahaba High School, president of her 1940 class and yearbook editor.  She married Walter Cornelius (1922-2007) in late January 1942, and soon took a job in her brother-in-law's (Robert W. Daly, Sr.) Woodlawn, Alabama bank, taking the place of a drafted man. 

Robert Daly, Sr. at his death in 1959 was branch manager and assistant vice president of the First National Bank of Birmingham, later AmSouth.  Many years later, Robert's grandson, E. Clayton Herrin, would serve also as an assistant vice president and branch manager of the same bank and occupied the same office as that of his grandfather.

Below the new 1951 bank office of Robert's, which would in later decades be Clayton's!

Reflecting the scarcity of workers and ease of finding new employment, was a letter Pearl wrote in the fall of 1942. 

"Virginia has been offered a new job at the airport, more money.  She may take it.  Guess she will have to.  She won't be able to keep every thing going with what she makes at the bank."

Below an amazing picture from the 1940 Shades Cahaba yearbook.  Virginia sits in the center as yearbook editor and business manager, Walter Cornelius is on the left of her, a bit scrunched in this posed picture.  This photograph is almost a metaphor of their 30 years marriage, both career professionals. Virginia, the banker, was always a bit further ahead professionally than Walter, a lawyer.  She supported the family during his college and law school days, which perturbed more traditional members of the Holliman family.

 

Virginia wrote Bishop the following that same autumn.  "I had an offer to work at Eastern Air Lines for $100 a month.  But there would be some night work.  They gave me a $10 raise to stay at the bank with more the first of the year.  So I will stay here as transportation to and from the airport at night (would cost money so ) probably would make out as well."   

Virginia would stay in banking and after traveling with her husband to his training bases in 1944, returned to Irondale, re-entered banking and stayed with it until retirement in 1990.  She broke some glass ceilings along the way becoming the first woman senior vice president of AmSouth.

The oldest child, Melton Pearson Holliman (1908-1958), a pharmacy supply salesman, was anxious to get into the war, even though he was 34 years old and married.  Below are exerts from his fall 1942 letters reflecting his conflicting thoughts on the draft and entering the service.  (He would enter the U.S. Army, age 35, in August 1943.)

"I received a letter from my draft board yesterday wanting to know if my dependents or job had changed.  Guess I'll be in before long.  I'll be glad of it."

"I wrote my boss today that unless something happened I intended to enlist in the Navy November 15th.  I'll be glad when it is done as this uncertainty is bad on one's nerves."

"I suppose you have heard they are taking 18 and 19 year old boys now.  Say they don't want old men.  So...I suppose that means I won't get in until spring 1943.  I hope they don't consider me old."

As with his mother, Pearl, Melton was not pleased that his new brother-in-law stayed out of the Army and went to college while his wife, Virgina, worked.  One can detect differing attitudes of the role of wives and their husbands in Melton's scathing letter in October 1942. 

"I suppose you have heard about Virginia's husband going back to college and she is continuing work to pay his way through.  I have only utter contempt for anyone who would do this.  And the least I can say will be for the best."

The draft hung over all, especially for young 18 year old Ralph, who continued working in the fall of 1942, and calling on his girl friend, Motie Chism.   Another brother-in-law of Ralph's, The Rev. Charles Ferrell, pastor of the Jacksonville, Alabama Methodist Church penned these words to Bishop that stressful fall of 1942.

"Ralph spent the day with his girl friend.  From all accounts he has it pretty bad.  He doesn't believe it would do any good to go to school.  Of course, you can't tell him anything."  

Ralph's mother, Pearl, observed:  "Well, I guess Dad and I will soon be in this big old house by our selves.  It want be long before Ralph will be gone, and if he had started to school last fall it would not have helped him any for every one that was in his class that was in school, left last Saturday (for the service).  I know the Lord is able to take care of him just as He is taking care of you."

Below a 1984 picture of Motie, Ralph, Mary Daly Herrin and Bishop Holliman.

"Ralph goes to see his girl 3 or 4 times a week.  Ralph had Motie over here, first time I had seen her."  As noted in this space before, however young Ralph and Motie might have been, their 1943 marriage lasted sixty years until her death in 2003. 

Below, Charles and Loudelle Ferrell
 

Charles Ferrell's wife, Loudelle Holliman (1914-1998), by then the mother of three children, and a pastor's wife, did her bit to increase home food production.  She wrote: "We are getting eggs enough for our family now.  Day before yesterday we got 7; yesterday 5.  It surely is sweet music to hear those hens cackling.  I never would have thought I would ever enjoy such as that so much.  We also have 21 little ones that we are 'rearing' to eat." 

Housing was a premium during the War.  Widows such as Lula Hocutt Caine of Irondale, Pearl's mother (1861-1957) took in boarders and the behaviors of some renters left a lot to be desired.  Pearl reported in several letters: 

"Grandma is doing fine, except the renters have been on a spree.  Had a fight last nite, and broke out some of the windows."

"Mother is having a time with her roomers.  In fact they liked to killed each other this a.m., about 3 a.m. and called me.  Had to bring mother up here about 4:30 am.  They had him arrested last wed. nit, but he was out on bond.  They will have to go to court next week. Think we will get him out this time if he don't tear the house down.  I think the very devil has turned loose in him so that place will be to clean up and get new rents.  Mother said she wished Bishop was home to stay with her."

"I don't know what we will do with them.  Let them stay I guess.  Some of these times, they will kill one or both."   

Below Lula Hocutt Caine, born Fayette County, Alabama and whose father died in January 1863 as a result of the Battle of Stones River, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  In this 1950 picture, she was 89 years old. 

Grandma Caine, as she was known to the family, needed the renter income.  William Lee Caine, born in 1862 died in 1938, worked as a guard for the railroad and evidently left no pension, and that in an era before Social Security.  The 1940 Census reported she earned no income although her son, Floyd Caine, age 54 in 1942 lived with her, at least for a while. Often relatives had to help financially. 

Pearl Caine Holliman usually closed her letters to her sons with a benediction.  Below are her words of faith, with a closing on movie and radio star of the time - Bob Hope! 

"May the Lord bless and keep you.  Write as often as you can.  Good nite and God bless you.  love Mother H.  PS Bob Hope is own (on)."

  Next, the first year of the war ends with a surprise visit home....

How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 24

by Glenn N. Holliman

Letters from Home....

In the autumn of 1942 H. Bishop Holliman, as yet was the only male in the Ulyss S. Holliman family of Irondale, Alabama in the service, received numerous letters from home.  The correspondence from family reveal much about domestic life during World War II and the increasing sacrifices and worry.  In them we learn of Irondale friends, hasty marriages and the increasing demands on the home front.

What follows are exerts from correspondence to Bishop, now aboard the USS Butler, from Pearl Caine Holliman (1887-1955), mother of seven children - Melton, Vena, Euhal, Loudelle, Bishop, Virginia and Ralph.  Her sincere faith must have been echoed by millions of other mothers during the war.  Bottom right, are Charles Ferrell, Pearl Holliman, Ralph Holliman, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell and Ulyss Holliman at Key West, Florida, February 1942 visiting Bishop at his Navy base.





Below in 1982, Euhal sporting the dark glasses, and his two younger brothers, Ralph and Bishop, pose at the family reunion at E.C. and Mary Daly Herrin's home in Irondale.

In a later letter, Pearl wrote:  "Ralph is gone to see his girl tonite.  I am getting worried he goes too often to see one girl.  I just know he won't go back to school and he is too young.  Looks like every one is crazy any more."  Ralph Holliman (b 1924) was seeing Motie Chism, his high school sweet heart.  They married in March 1943 just before Ralph was called to the U.S. Army.  This war time marriage lasted until Motie's passing in 2003, 60 years later!   

His mother wrote this letter just seven months after the war time marriage of Ralph's sister, Virginia Holliman, to Walter Cornelius, January 1942.

That girl Ralph went to see stands behind him at the 1982 Irondale reunion, and in the foreground enjoying the day, is their older daughter, Pam Holliman.  Background right in green is Mary Daly Herrin.

Other news during the later summer and autumn concerned friends and family.  Some information I have paraphrased.  Pearl's words are in red.



 - "Cecil Bunt was sick."  The Bunts lived down the street from the Hollimans of 2300 3rd Avenue North.  Below right, January 2013, 93 years old, Bishop Holliman hugs Joyce Bunt Trammel at an Irondale, Alabama historical meeting.  Back right is childhood friend, James Pugh, also originally of Irondale in the 1920s and 30s.

- Mr. Luker tried to get work at the shops of the Birmingham Electric Company but could not due to T.B. of the spine. Pearl's husband, Ulyss Holliman, worked at the street car shops of Birmingham Electric and was trying to get his friend a job.

- Euhal's twins  were ill at one point, and Euhal himself was hospitalized for a week due to hip issue.  The twins were Jerry and Terry Holliman, born 1940, lived in Gadsden, Alabama with their sister Anne and parents, Edna and Euhal.  Terry now lives in Arizona; Jerry died of a heart attack in 2003 in Alaska.  The hip problem inhibited Euhal's ability to walk.  This ailment, plus being the father of 4 children in his 30s, probably led to Euhal's deferment from service during the war.

 Above at the Bishop Holliman home in Tennessee are the twins - Jerry and Terry flanked by their grand parents, Pearl and Ulyss.  Becky Holliman Payne, b. 1950 is in pigtails and this writer, Glenn, b. 1946 stands left in front of his grandfather.

- Both Charles Halford and the new baby, John Melton Ferrell, had health issues which worried Loudelle and Charles.  Both John, b. 1942, and Charles Halford, b. 1936, have lived into their 70s and are in remarkably good health, not withstanding a poor diagnosis by a Jacksonville, Alabama physician in their childhood.  The photograph was taken in 1944 of Carolyn, John and Charles Ferrell.

- B.J. Cook took his new bride to Silver Springs, Florida, and Lee and Ivaline Cook visited their home town of Fayette, Alabama. The Cooks were nieces and nephews of Pearl, children of her sister, Maude Caine Cook, who died in 1940. Lee Cook was the widower of Maude Caine Cook.  For a time in the 1920s and 30s, the Cook's lived in the house behind the Hollimans in Irondale.

- Mary Daly (Herrin) led her class in the selling of War Bond stamps - $16 worth!   Below, Mary, center, is flanked by Jean and Joyce Bunt (whose 2013 picture is above) on the steps at 2300 3rd Avenue North, Irondale in November 1942.  Mary and Joyce Bunt still live in Irondale.


- Pearl, who had qualms about her daughter's marriage to Walter Cornelius, was irritated that Walter enrolled in Birmingham-Southern College, somehow avoiding the draft, and allowing his wife to support them! In 1943, Walter did join the Army and in time, Pearl hung his picture in uniform in a prominent spot on her wall of family photographs!  Below, Virginia and Walter probably at his training base in Yuma, Arizona before he shipped to the Pacific.
 

It was a time when life seemed to speed up, when young men, and often their brides, were taken "to far away places with strange sounding names".  The roles of women were changing and the older generation, traditional in faith and culture, had challenges adjusting.

Next more on World War II and the impact on this Alabama family....

From the Files of Rhodes Burns Holliman, Part 1

 by Glenn N. Holliman

From the Files of Rhodes Burns Holliman, 1928-2014....

This past April 29, my second cousin, Dr. Rhodes Burns Holliman died in Dublin, Virginia.  To the left is a recent picture of Rhodes and his surviving wife, Phyllis Anne.

Rhodes was an avid collector of family materials, building on the pioneering work of his father, Cecil Rhodes Holliman (1901-1986) of Birmingham, Alabama.  Cecil was a first cousin to my father, H. Bishop Holliman, b. 1919.

At Rhodes passing, his family graciously has entrusted me with the pleasant task of reviewing and scanning the genealogy and pictures that date from the 1910s to the present.

While examining materials today, I came upon a lovely photograph of my Aunt Vena Holliman Daly (1909-1990), mother of my first cousins, Mary Daly Herrin and Dr. Robert W. Daly, Jr.

 This photograph is not in the files of family pictures I have been collecting from my many cousins. I am wondering if this is an heretofore undiscovered photograph of Vena, taken perhaps near the date of her marriage to Robert W. Daly, Sr. in 1928?  Her name is recorded on the photograph.

As other pertinent materials emerge from the boxes of materials saved by Rhodes, I shall be posting them at this site as well as at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ .

Some of you have been following a central archives that several distant cousins and I established a year or so ago at MyFamily.com.   Unfortunately, Ancestry.com, the parent company, is retiring that site.  Below is an announcement, I posted on the site which I reproduce below.  Many of the files I have collected deal with the Holliman, Blakeney, Baker and other associated families that made Fayette County, Alabama their homes in the 1830s.

 "All, as this MyFamily site disappears on Sept. 30th, I have copied all FILES to my computer. A list of these files, about 200, can be found at the PAGES section of http:hollimanfamilyhistor­y.blogspot.com /. These represent thousands of pages of genealogical materials and manuscripts.

For the time being this is the best I can do until an appropriate archive site comes along. I am happy to email by Zip file these records, and encourage you and others to have a look at the catalogue (alphabetical order by families and records) from time to time. There are many records of Holliman and associated families.

My thanks to the families of the late Cecil R. Holliman, his son, Rhodes B. Holliman and Walt O. Holliman for the use of their files to scan, save and share via the Internet, systems not available to their generations. Also others such as Maxine Wright and Joe Parker have shared with me.

As time goes on, I shall be Zipping all my records to the core group that is also archiving them, and I especially welcome younger genealogists to copy, save and distribute these files. My estate has the password(s) to my computer files, and they will be available when I am no longer in this DNA format!

I think we all have a responsibility to save and share, especially with the age of personal computers and the Internet. If you have something stored in your attic, for family's sake, scan and share. I am happy to help if you need assistance.

How fortunate we are to have Jeanette Holiman Stewart continuing to create and add to an 18,000 name family tree file. Make sure you stay connected to this massive tree after MyFamily closes. The tree lives on at Ancestry.com.

And Tina Peddie continues to maintain communications through her Facebook and designated email site. We are a fortunate as an extended family to live in these times and to have access to a growing body of genealogical information!

Now back to scanning! Glenn N. Holliman, 7th great grandson of Christopher Holyman (1618-1691)"

Next week, Back to World War II....

How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 23

by Glenn N. Holliman

 The Allies Respond....

 Between May and September 1942, 14 German U-Boats prowled Gulf of Mexico waters sinking 58 ships of over 300,000 tons. - Alabama, The History of a Deep South State, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2004.  In the South Pacific the battles of the Solomon Islands continued with a fearful toil of the U.S. Navy.

Below, the USS Enterprise, the last U.S. carrier afloat in the eastern Solomons, takes punishment, but does not sink in the fall of 1942.
 
But the tide of war was changing....

"Between the 4th and 22nd November, 1942, the face of the war changed its entire expression.  On the 4th, (General Bernard) Montgomery won the battle of El Alamein.  On the 8th, American and British forces landed in French North Africa.  On the 22nd, the Russians closed the pincers behind the German 6th Army in Stalingrad." - Volume II of the Dairies & Letters of Harold Nicolson, Atheum, New York, 1967.

For Bishop Holliman, radio seaman from Irondale, Alabama, the war was heating up.  After 40 mm machine gun practice in Rhode Island, his destroyer, the USS Butler, began sea trials, sailing out of Philadelphia and into the North Atlantic of the New England coast.  It was October and November, and the sea was rough.  And so was the shakedown cruise.  

Below, the Butler, all of 1,000 tons in size, sailing from her commissioning port of Philadelphia in 1942.

Below, a letter to Bishop's sister, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, and his brother-in-law, Charles.  Recently, the Rev. Charles Ferrell had taken an appointment at the United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Alabama as the senior pastor.   Bishop describes the fatigue and intensive training necessary to prepare the crew and ship for war duty, but does not forget niece and nephews.  

Notice his reference to the second front, the Allied invasion under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower of North Africa. Also, the sinking of a U-boat by another destroyer on post with the Butler.

"If you see a sub, don't report it.  Maybe it will sink us."

Below, the Charles Ferrell's and 'a new nephew', John Melton Ferrell, named after his uncle, Melton Pearson Ferrell (1908-1958).  Left to right, Charles Halford, Charles, Carolyn, John and Loudelle.  Loudelle and Charles wrote often to her brothers, Bishop, Ralph and Melton Holliman, during the war.

 Next post, more stories and photographs of an Alabama family at war....

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).
For additional information on Hollimans, check out http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . 

Ralph Holliman's 90th Birthday

by Glenn N. Holliman

Friends and Family gather to Celebrate a Milestone....July 2014

The youngest of the seven children of Ulyss (1884-1965) and Pearl Caine Holliman (1888-1955) observed his 90th birthday surrounded by friends and family in Gulf Shores, Alabama recently.  Speaking emotionally to over 70 guests at a birthday luncheon, Ralph Holliman, retired corporate executive, father of two and grandfather of one, said "he could not believe he was 90", and "must be the luckiest man alive".  

Ralph grew up in Irondale, Alabama and served in the European theater during World War II.  For sixty years, he was married to the late Motie Chism Holliman (1925-2003).  Below after their wedding in 1943 in front of the Robert W. Daly, Sr. home on 3rd Avenue North, Irondale.   Ralph entered the U.S. Army shortly after the marriage, and did not return home until 1945.  

Below, left to right: Ralph with his lovely wife of seven years, Laura; daughter Pam Holliman, grand daughter Rachel Harbour and front son-in-law Tim Donald, (not shown) Kathy Holliman's husband.  Ninety candles blazed on the cake while the caterer (background) stood by with a fire extinguisher!

Known for his wry and understated sense of humor,

Ralph boldly sported a 'Happy Birthday' cake chapeau

during much of the event!

           

Ralph and his first wife, Motie, were blessed with two talented daughters and grand daughter.

Kathy (left) is a professional writer and Pam (right) a seminary professor.  Kathy's daughter, Rachel, edits art history publications for a Boston publisher.







Relatives in attendance on a glorious summer day were seated left to right: Pam Holliman, Ralph Holliman, Laura Holliman, Kathy Holliman and Rachel Harbour.  Back rows: Terri Heyduk, Jean Holliman, Wally Allen (back row), Tommie Holliman Allen (partially obscured by the candles!), Chuck Morton, Carol Cornelius Morton, Nancy Ferrell, Charles H. Ferrell, Glenn Holliman and Tim Donald.

Bishop Holliman, Ralph's 94 year old brother, had planned to attend but had complications that prohibited his visitation from Indiana.  The two brothers survive from siblings of seven - Melton (1908-1958), Vena (1909-1990), Euhal (1912-1986), Loudell (1914-1999) and Virginia (1922-2011).  Below, Ralph and Bishop Holliman in the 1980s.

Next posting, back to World War II and its impact on the Holliman family of Alabama....

 Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).
For additional information on Hollimans, check out http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ . 

How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 22

by Glenn N. Holliman

Letters from Home....

Of all the letters Bishop Holliman of Irondale, Alabama saved during World War II, there is only one written from his father, Ulyss S. Holliman (1884-1965) in the summer of 1942.  Ulyss was born in 1884 in Fayette County, Alabama, the last of six boys of John Thomas Holliman (1844-1930), a Confederate Civil War veteran who had excruciating war experiences.  (See earlier articles at http://hollimanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ .)

Below, Pearl Caine and Ulyss Holliman in 1949.  Pearl was 61 and Ulyss 65.

 

John Thomas and his second wife, Martha Jane Walker (mother of five of the six boys), worked a dirt-poor farm in the Hico community just south of Fayette, the county seat.  Ulyss must have toiled long and hard on the farm learning how to grow cotton, corn and vegetables.  In the 1910 census, Ulyss is recorded as a farmer.  By then he had married Pearl Caine (1888-1955) and they already had two children - Melton and Vena.  In 1912 and 1914, two more children came along - Euhal and Loudelle.

To support his growing family, Ulyss probably took a job with the local saw mill, as the family was then living in a small house, a few blocks south of the square in Fayette.  Sometime in the 1910s, John Thomas and Martha Jane ceased farming due to advancing age and moved to Fayette themselves.

Below, John Thomas and Martha Jane Walker Thomas in 1929, the year before John died. In the far right corner, back ground, dressed in his Sunday best, is Bishop Holliman.  This photograph was taken at the Holliman home in Fayette, Alabama.  John Thomas fought in seven Civil War battles, and Martha Jane's father, Samuel Walker, was at Gettysburg and surrendered with Lee's forces in Virginia during the last week of the war.

Wars change lives, and in or around 1917 in the economic expansion of World War I, Ulyss Holliman and his family joined his Caine family in-laws in moving to Irondale, Alabama, then a blue collar suburb of the rapidly growing city of Birmingham.  A skilled carpenter, Ulyss took a job with the Birmingham Electric Company repairing the mostly wooden street cars.  He held that employment until retirement in 1949.  Below, three trains cross at a busy intersection in downtown Birmingham ca 1940.

Below, Ulyss around 1924 in his plush Irondale garden at 2300 3rd Avenue North with his daughter, Virginia Holliman Cornelius (1922-2011).  One of Virginia's daughters, Susan Cornelius Williams, remembers her grandfather growing chrysanthemums and calling her 'Soosie'.

Ulyss needed the work, because the children kept coming - Bishop in 1919, Virginia in 1922 and Ralph in 1924.  Despite the long hours and no vacations until the middle 1930s, he managed a family garden and helped Pearl with the chickens.  We catch a glimpse of this life in his letter written the summer of 1942. Notice the names of several of his children are spelled incorrectly as his formal education ended in the 6th grade in a rural Alabama elementary school.

Oh me, what to make of a father who signs his letter to his son in the Navy with 'As Ever, U.S.Holliman'?  Ulysses Selman Holliman had a taciturn personality, perhaps copied from his father, who suffered evidently from post traumatic stress syndrome, a result of almost three years of  Civil War. Ulyss, tall and thin, did not smile much, could be contrary around grandchildren (I remember), was dependable, hard working and devoted to the Republican Party and the Tabernacle Church in Birmingham.  

Below from the Birmingham News in 1950, my grandfather, second from right, serves as elder of Bible Gospel Tabernacle.

I can still remember as a child gathering around his breakfast table in Irondale.  His blessings of the food were long, and in the background one sat through a sermon by Glenn Tingle, pioneer radio preacher, gasping for breath and fighting hell and and slinging damnation through the airwaves.  All the time Pearl (Grand Mama Holliman) calmly cooking, serving food and hugging her grandchildren.  

Below, Ulyss and Pearl in the autumn of 1942 in their yard in Irondale on 3rd Avenue, N.  Ulyss was 58 and Pearl 54 that year.

Ulyss also was ticklish!  He could not stand to be 'goosed'.  On one occasion riding home from work on a street car (as one can see in the street car picture above, they had large open air windows in pre-air conditioning days), an erstwhile friend (evidently brave, foolish or both) reached out and tickled Ulyss under his arms. 

Unfortunately, my grandfather was holding a package of grocery meat for the family. Surprised by the personal intrusion, Ulyss threw up his arms, and the beef went flying out the window, and was never recovered.  

My mother made the mistake of tickling him one time, and only one time, and he became furious! These tales were told many times through the decades over the family Thanksgiving table.

Next Training for War....

 Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).