Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Holland, William J.M. Jr., 1957 

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WILLIAM JOSEPH MOORE HOLLAND 

FRANKLIN MAYOR CLAIMED BY DEATH SUNDAY MORNING 

   Residents of the Franklin community on Sunday morning, July 7, learned with 
a feeling of profound personal loss of the sudden death of William Joseph 
Moore Holland, Jr., Mayor of Franklin, who died at his home on W. Second 
Avenue after a heart attack.

   The scene of loss was due not so much to the fact that Bill Holland had 
served his town efficiently as Mayor since 1946 as to the fact that whenever 
the death angel entered a home he was presently on hand to comfort those who 
were bereaved and by his unfailing courtesy and consideration, to ease the 
pain of parting.  More than one person has been known to say that nobody but 
Bill Holland could bury him or her.

   Stricken about 3 o’clock Sunday morning, Mayor Holland passed away some 
three hours later while discussing with his brother, Stanley T. Holland, with 
whom he was associated in business, the arrangements for the funeral Sunday 
afternoon of his friend, J. Linwood Edwards, who had succumbed to a heart 
attack late Friday night.  News of his death spread rapidly throughout 
Franklin and the surrounding area and cast a pall of sorrow over the 
community.  At the time of his death Mayor Holland was 54 years of age.

   A native of Franklin, Mayor Holland was the son of Mrs. Essie Pretlow 
Holland and the late William Joseph Moore Holland, Sr., who in 1890 came to 
Franklin from Nansemond county and founded the undertaking establishment today 
known as W.J.M. Holland & Sons.  After attending the Franklin schools Mayor 
Holland studied at the Brown School of Embalming in Raleigh, N.C.  Upon the 
completion of his course there he returned to Franklin and joined his father 
in business, the firm later being expanded to include Stanley T. Holland and 
Joel Cook Holland, brothers of the deceased, and his sister, Mrs. Maria H. 
Matthews.  In 1928 he married Miss Helen Winborne of Como, N.C.

   From his youth Bill Holland took an active part in the affairs of the 
community.  Longtime friends recall that shortly after World War I he was a 
member of the locally constituted band that on a number of occasions broadcast 
over nearby radio stations.  All has adult life he was interested in young 
people and especially in the Boy Scouts having at one time belonged to that 
organization.  He was a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Franklin 
Chamber of Commerce; and he was a past president of the Franklin Lions Club. 
With his wife he joined the Franklin Baptist Church and for several years 
prior to his death he had served on the board of deacons.

   Persuaded to become a candidate for the Town Council of Franklin in 1946, 
Bill Holland led the ticket in the number of votes cast; and as a consequence 
his colleagues on the Council elected him Mayor, a position he had ever since 
filled acceptably and with credit to himself.  Of a truth it can be said that 
he wore himself out in his service to the community.

   During his tenure of office as Mayor many changes have taken place in 
Franklin, which in the dozen years since World War 2 has expanded greatly. 
Large areas, including Cobbtown, Meadowbrook and Riverview, had been added to 
the town.  A new Town Hall, a new National Guard armory and a sewage disposal 
plant have been built, and water and sewer lines have been extended.  In spite 
of the many physical improvements which have been made, the town, thanks to 
Mayor Holland’s wise and conservative leadership, has maintained a sound 
position financially.

   Mayor Holland gave to his business the same energy and devotion that he 
gave to municipal matters.  He was a past district governor of the National 
Funeral Directors Association, and he was a member of the Virginia Funeral 
Directors Association and of National Selected Morticians.

   Besides his wife and mother, he is survived by two sons, W.J.M. Holland, 
3rd, of Franklin and Samuel Winborne Holland, USA, of Fort Knox, Ky.; a 
grandson, Andrew Thomas Holland of Franklin, a sister, Mrs. Maria H. Matthews 
of Franklin, two brothers, Stanley T. Holland of Franklin and Joel Cook 
Holland of Murfreesboro, N.C.; five nieces, Mrs. William J. Coward of 
Greenville, S.C., Mrs. William T. Tucker of Richmond, Misses Carolyn and 
Martha Holland of Murfreesboro, N.C. and Miss Helen Jones Majette of Chapel 
Hill, N.C.; and four nephews, Roy T. Matthews, Jr., of Baton Rouge, La., 
Stanley T. Holland, Jr., of Atlanta, Ga., and Joel Cook Holland, Jr., and 
Robert Holland of Murfreesboro, N.C.

   Services for Mayor Holland were conducted in the lovely chapel, of which he 
was so proud, on Tuesday afternoon at 4 o’clock by Rev. Ira D. Hudgins, pastor 
of the Franklin Church.  Among the concourse of friends and acquaintances 
present for the rites were officials of the Tidewater Funeral Association, the 
National Selected Morticians and the National Funeral Directors Association. 
Present also were funeral directors from Virginia, Maryland and North 
Carolina, members of the Franklin Town Council, and town employees.

   Interment was in Poplar Spring Cemetery.  The active pallbearers were 
Hobart Steel of Burlington, N.C., and W.L. Burrow, Dr. Darden W. Jones, R. 
Ellsworth Jones, Ashby Rawls and George Watkins of Franklin.  Honorary 
pallbearers were town officials, deacons of the Franklin Baptist Church, and 
funeral directors.

   Mayor Holland’s dedication to his community, his ability to get things 
done, and his pleasant, positive personality will be missed in the years 
ahead.  To those who knew him well it will be a source of consolation to 
remember that he was able to do so much for so many in the time allotted him.


William Joseph Moore "Bill" HOLLAND, Jr., funeral director, Mayor of Franklin, 
Franklin native, d. 7 Jul 1957, Franklin, age 54, 
interred in Poplar Spring Cemetery (Annex 2, Plot 181*), Franklin, 
   9 Jul 1957, 
"The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), July 11, 1957, Sect. I, p. 1 

*His parents are buried in Annex 2, Plot 164. 
   Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, 
   Poplar Spring list: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/psanx2.txt 

His father's obit ("Tidewater News," Oct. 23, 1942, p. 1) is posted at: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/h453w4ob.txt 

His mother's obit ("Tidewater News," Dec. 29, 1966, p. 11), 
   with their marriage record appended, is posted at: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/h453e7ob.txt 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), 
and re-formatted by File Manager. 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/h453w7ob.txt