I108: Fannie Elizabeth HOLLAND (15 Jul 1885

Fannie Elizabeth HOLLAND

15 Jul 1885 - 9 Feb 1969

OCCUPATION: Milliner
BIRTH: 15 Jul 1885, Arkansas
DEATH: 9 Feb 1969, Texarkana, Bowie Co., TX
BURIAL: Hillcrest Cemetery, Texarkana, TX

Father: William Henry Harrison HOLLAND
Mother: Sarah Elizabeth WRIGHT

Family 1 : Samuel C. BUNCH

MARRIAGE: 24 Oct 1934, Woodruff Co., AR

                                                            _____________________
                                   _James HOLLAND _________|
                                  |                        |_____________________
 _William Henry Harrison HOLLAND _|
|                                 |                         _____________________
|                                 |_Jane RED ______________|
|                                                          |_____________________
|
|--Fannie Elizabeth HOLLAND 
|
|                                                           _Willis WRIGHT ______+
|                                  _Edward Ausburn WRIGHT _|
|                                 |                        |_Mary (WRIGHT) ______
|_Sarah Elizabeth WRIGHT _________|
                                  |                         _____________________
                                  |_Rebecca CHAPPELL ______|
                                                           |_Elizabeth CHAPPELL _

Notes:

Elizabeth Holland with unknown little girl (Helen Holland?)

Many family stories exist about "Aunt Elizabeth". She was somewhat eccentric and often very difficult with people. The general consensus among most of the family members who knew her, was that she acted like she was from a social class that was way above the one which she was born to. Embarrassed by the way her mother dressed, she would often introduce her as "the cleaning lady". Pat (Holland) Bodine had spent some time with Aunt Elizabeth when she was young girl and had this to say about her (from 1995):
	Aunt Elizabeth over cleaned! It was so funny because my grandmother [Pearl Holland] didn't clean. My grandmother was more interested in having a pretty flower bed and cooking... But the house had to be spotless -- she [Elizabeth] would iron the sheets -- she'd iron her cup towels -- and everything was always clean and Aunt Elizabeth was just ridiculous in her cleanliness. But she also liked to entertain, Aunt Elizabeth did -- I don't know who she would entertain other than me -- but when she entertained me, she had fancy dishes out, fancy silverware, and table cloth on the table. You know, she just made like... those little four cornered sandwiches. I mean, like you take a sandwich like this and cut an "X" like that -- it makes four little sandwiches. Then she'd have made cookies and then she'd have lemonade and you know she'd just make it really fancy... It was always Pearl cooking. Of course it was Pearl's house that I remember the food part. I think maybe what they did probably -- Elizabeth would clean and Pearl would cook. You know, like Pearl would cook your dinner and then Elizabeth would clean up after -- that's probably the way it went and also she cleaned the bathroom when she lived there. And Mr. Bunch, I don't remember him doing much of anything as far as -- I'm sure they were all retired by that time... She was a clothes horse! I don't remember her wearing black but what does a kid notice? I remember some lavender stuff and blue stuff. She had her hair pulled -- it was probably long but she wore those pin things -- you know, you'd stick your finger in your hair and make a little wave thing -- she'd have those all waved and she'd probably have a thing in the back -- but I don't know -- a knot -- but I don't remember the knot -- I just remember those real tight little wave things on the sides and she always had some sort of something on her neck like ruffles or a broach. She always dress nice -- like with a dress -- not pants. She was always dressed up... No, I don't remember her having on any kind of sloppy clothes at all.
My Aunt Clara (Hutchison) told me this story about her: "[Aunt Elizabeth] had a good friend and she was married to Samuel Bunch. She said, 'Oh Elizabeth, when I die you can have my Sammy' & that's just what she did!" (letter, 8 Apr 1991)

Central Leader, August 30, 1918

My "Aunt Elizabeth" had a millinery shop in the mezzanine of Planters Mercantile in McCrory, AR in the 1920's. The above ad in a 1918 issue of the McCrory weekly newspaper, the Central Leader, suggests that the shop may have originally been in a different building as well as being a continuation of the business which her mother once maintained (indicated in the 1910 Census and of which there is no family remembrance).

(Photo from April 1997)

Planters Mercantile Company was originally known as the McCrory Mercantile Company (there is no mention of it being called the McCrory Concrete Building). There is a history of the McCrory family in Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Vol. XI, No. 1 (Augusta: Woodruff County Historical Society, Winter, 1983), "The McCrory Family in McCrory," by Vernon Paysinger, p. 2. With this article there is a photograph of the inside of the McCrory Mercantile in 1918, however it does not show it having a mezzanine. Perhaps it was in the back of the building. This store was renovated in the 1990's and converted into a lawyer's office. The original "McCrory Mercantile Co." was kept on the front of it. I was inside this building in 1997 and the new owners believed that there had once been a hat shop in back of the building. The original ceiling could also still be seen in the back.

(Photo from April 1997)

When I met Henry and Jessie Wright during my first visit to Arkansas in 1998, Henry told me that Elizabeth would often refer to Jessie "that woman," and that Elizabeth had "her nose stuck up so high, that she would collect water when it rained!" Jessie said she got along with Elizabeth however, and said that she had many fine hats in her shop. From Joe Holland (transcribed from a tape which he recorded in September of 1986):
	Aunt Elizabeth had a little hat store in the downtown Mercantile store -- a large grocery store that handled every kind of thing that you can think of in the town of McCrory. This store still belonged to the McCrorys who also owned the bank there. And Aunt Elizabeth as I say sold hats. She had a customer who was an elderly Negro woman and she came in one day and said, "Miss Lizzy, I wants t' see yor hats." And Aunt Elizabeth said, "Listen Liza, you still owe me for that old red hat you bought from me two years ago. You still haven't paid me the two dollars for that hat and I can't let you look at my hats no more if you don't pay me. You know, Liza, I'm a gettin' old and one of these days I'm going to die and when I do if you don't ever pay me for that hat, I'm going to sit at the foot of your bed for the rest of your life and wear that old red hat on!" She said, "Lawd! Lawd! Miss Lizzie, pleeze don' do that! Pleeze don' do that! Pleeze don' do that! And she run off out the door real fast and about thirty or forty minutes she comes back. She had that two dollars. She paid for the hat and Aunt Elizabeth let her look at the rest of her hats, but I don't think she ever bought another.

From Helen (Holland) Riggs (transcribed from an interview which I recorded in 16 Dec 1995, Odessa, TX):
	They say she was Miss Elizabeth because she didn't marry until she was past 50. She was such a clean, clean, clean, clean... when anyone come to visit she'd have the broom handy -- she'd sweep the dust out as they left. And she'd sweep the leaves off the yard every morning. The saying in McCrory was "I saw Miss Elizabeth this morning sweeping the leaf off of the yard!" It's a wonder that she didn't have her a basket to run around out there and try to catch them all before they touched the ground. Her millinery shop was up on the balcony downtown... wasn't very far about... three or four blocks... and Aunt Elizabeth always just raved about me, "Oh Helen Gene! You're so pretty! You're so sweet! You're so lovely! You're just... oh!" You know, "You're my honey!" Oh, she just carried on about me. But this day she needed to go and she left me with the hat shop and I wanted to be cute... and I thought of something different... `cause she was always bragging on me so much... I thought what could I do that would be cute that she'd go run and brag on me when she come back. So I was sliding down on the banister when she came back and she just had a wall-eyed fit! She thought I was so uncouth and so... Oh, I had disgraced her for life! Aunt Daisy I think it was... It was Daisy Neely... and Aunt Elizabeth, I heard later got in a big fuss about something... at the funeral -- Grandmother's [Sarah Elizabeth (Wright) Holland]. Aunt Daisy was there and Aunt Elizabeth didn't like the way she was dressed -- she thought she was tacky and she was ashamed of her, you know.... And so she went and had a dress made for Aunt Daisy and presented it to her without her knowing that she had it made -- So when she showed up, the girls were with her, Alta and Sarah -- or at least one of them was with her, and... so Aunt Elizabeth presented it... and thought Aunt Daisy would be delighted... but Aunt Daisy came unglued she just had a wall-eyed hissy right there... she got right up in Aunt Elizabeth's face, and she said, "I am not wearing that dress! I not going to wear it!" She was just not about to wear that dress and then she didn't wear it. She just kind of told Aunt Elizabeth, "you can just fold it neatly and put it -- somewhere -- you know!

Sampled from the Woodruff County News (McCrory, G. W. Kramer, editor):
	April 4, 1901The following named pupils of the McCrory Public Schools deserve honorable mention, each one having averaged 90 percent or more in the last monthly examination... 6th Grade... Lizzie Holland...
	May 2, 1901 Miss Lizzie Holland made a visit to Cotton Plant the first of the week.
	May 23, 1901 Honor Roll... 6th Grade... Lizzie Holland. ..
	July 4, 1901, Local news for Grays: Misses Daisy and Lizzie Holland of McCrory, were in our town Monday morning.
	Nov 23, 1901 One night last week, the following named persons enjoyed a royal party at the pleasant home of Mr. and Mrs. Parker Llewellyn... Lena and Lizzie Holland... Robert Lee, Ollie Holland... Benj. Watson...

From the Arkansas Central Leader (McCrory):
	Dec 27, 1923 Listed under First Baptist Church in McCrory -- Y. W. A. meets every 6:30 PM every Tuesday Miss Elizabeth Holland President.
	Sept 23, 1926 -- Miss Elizabeth Holland and Mrs. L. McFell were Wynne visitors this week.
One may assume that Aunt Elizabeth liked to get her name in the paper and there are undoubtedly there are many more items like this. Elizabeth and Sam moved to Texarkana sometime in the 1940's and lived at 916 Locust Street according to 1947 Texarkana City Directory. Lived with her brother Henry's family in Texarkana, after her husband died. Spent the last years of her life in a rest home, severely crippled with arthritis. My grandparents visited her once there.

Aunt Elizabeth with two unknown women, Texarkana c. 1940's

This page created on 04/23/00 01:33:20 . Updated 07/26/2004 22:38.