Louise Holliday Holden, 95
Louise Holliday Holden, a child of the Great Depression who spent a lifetime embracing learning, family, patriotism and passions from sewing to duplicate bridge to Cardinals baseball, died on Oct. 8, 2022.
Born on a farm in rural Felton, Delaware on Aug. 30, 1927, to Anna Powell Holliday and Louis Holliday, Jr., she died at home in Pensacola, Florida, where she had lived since 2005, with her family at her side.
The only book in her childhood home was the family Bible, and Louise could not wait to learn to read.
She excitedly attended first grade (in Felton School), where the alphabet was posted around the room.
One day, she proudly came home and told her parents she knew the alphabet. She then proceeded to recite it – "ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA." No one had told Louise that you were supposed to read from left to right. Her entire life, when she alphabetized paperwork/files, she always had to think of the alphabet backwards to file things correctly.
Alphabet in hand, she quickly accelerated to a love of words and reading. She died with three Kindles and books still to be read at her bedside.
Louise's early childhood was one which in today's world would be considered poverty. But at that time, her life was just the same as every other farm family. No one had indoor plumbing or electricity. She revered President Franklin Roosevelt because he introduced the Rural Electrification Act that brought electricity to farms. Every day, she would race up the lane outside her home and flip the switch to see if the electricity had been hooked up yet, but most of her studying growing up was done with an oil lamp.
She was surrounded by love from her family and numerous aunts/uncles/cousins who lived near and worked together to harvest the crops, butcher hogs, etc.
World War II was the backdrop of Louise's high school years. Everything from shoes to gasoline was rationed. Her mother fashioned some of her clothes from feed sacks. She played saxophone in the band and attended all-girl weekly dances in the nearest town while the boys went off to war. Her fiancé, Francis (Pup) Holden, was among them, joining the Marines and leaving for the Pacific.
Louise proudly graduated from Felton High School in 1945 as class valedictorian (of 16 students!). After high school, she left the farm and bravely ventured to Washington, D.C., to do her part for the war by working for the FBI as a Government Girl. Mr. Petrey, who was the Felton school principal, actually drove her to Washington and helped her get moved in. She was on the front row of the crowd of jubilant people who gathered at Lafayette Square to hear President Truman declare that Japan had surrendered. That day, the workers were allowed to go home to celebrate, and Louise rode a bus back home to Delaware. She said not a person sat down the whole trip due to the excitement and celebration that the war had ended.
Pup returned from the front lines, and he and Louise married two days later. They raised two daughters, Lois and Holly, in a happy, loving home and chased the dreams shared by the Greatest Generation. After raising her own girls, Louise helped rear grandsons, Rick and Mike. When she moved to Pensacola to be near her daughter, Lois, and granddaughters, Holly and Megan, she helped raise a third generation, great-grandchildren, Annie and Ben.
Louise worked as a secretary and manager of small offices most of her life. One of her favorite jobs was working for years at Governors Avenue Animal Hospital in Dover. Even after moving to Florida in 2005, she found work. She retired at 93, and then only because Covid dispersed workplaces.
Her homes in Delaware, Virginia and Pensacola reflected her love of decorating, her warm personality and her affinity for color. She could do anything from making drapes to rewiring lamps to fixing the plumbing. She always said that if people were reincarnated, she wanted to come back and own Felton Hardware because it had everything she needed.
She was an amazing seamstress, an agile dancer, and a Life Master at bridge. Until a few weeks ago, she was regularly playing bridge online with people around the world.
Most of all, Louise was a patriot. At summer concerts at Olde Seville Square, she always stood and sang the Marines' Hymn louder than anyone in the crowd. She proudly flew the American flag on the balcony of her Riviera condo.
She saw so many changes in the world over her 95 years, but she never forgot her humble roots. In fact, although she loved Pensacola, she always said that living on Church Street in Felton, Delaware were the happiest years of her life.
Louise was fiercely proud of her offspring and the fact that all of them graduated from college, something which she didn't have the opportunity to do. But even at the end, her mind was sharper than all of her offspring combined, degrees and all. Smart. Opinionated. Funny. Irreverent. Independent. Loyal. Loved. This was Louise.
She was predeceased by her parents; her husband of 40 years, Francis Holden; and her son-in-law, Ty Case.
Left to cherish her memory and all of the stories that she faithfully recorded on her computer are her sister, Helen Holliday Webb; her daughters, Lois Holden Benson (Scott) and Helen Holden (Holly) Case; her grandchildren, Anna Holliday (Holly) Benson, Megan Benson Pratt (Jerry), Richard Brainard Carroll Jr. (Rebecca Lane) and Michael Holden Carroll; her great-grandchildren, Anna Holliday (Annie) Pratt, Charles Benson (Ben) Pratt, Madison Rose Carroll and Carter Grace Carroll as well as many cousins and countless friends.
In Louise's memory, the family is donating to the West Florida Regional Library a collection of books about WWII as well as a recurring fund for e-books. Donations to that fund may be sent in care of Lois Benson, 520 East Zaragoza Street, Pensacola, Fla. 32502. Donations may also be sent to Felton High School Alumni Assn, c/o Marilyn Alexander, PO Box 802, Felton, DE 19943 or to a charity of your choice.
Graveside services will be held on Saturday, November 5 at 11:00 a.m. Her ashes will be interred next to her parents' graves at Barratt's Chapel Cemetery in Frederica, Delaware. Condolences may be sent via: www.pippinfuneralhome.com.