Donald E. Holloway, age 78, died Saturday, February 1, 2014 at his home in Water Valley, MS. A graveside committal service will be held at 9:30 am on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Water Valley, MS followed by a memorial service at 11:00 am at First United Methodist Church in Water Valley, MS. A time of fellowship and visitation will follow the memorial service in the fellowship hall of the church.
Mr. Holloway, son of Andrew Carey and Catherine Corgan Holloway, was born December 12, 1935 at Chickasha, Oklahoma. He graduated from Water Valley High School in 1954. He was part of the 8th Army attachment as a teletype operator in Korea, a member of a company at the 38th Parallel supporting the Swiss and Swedes, a neutral unit, during the peace talks. Later, he attended Northwest Junior College and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Mississippi in 1960. He and his wife, Mary Lucia George, returned to Water Valley where he joined his father in the family business. In 1979, he retired from Holloway Building Material as a co-owner. After retirement from the business, he was a substitute rural mail carrier, a locksmith and commercial property owner.
President of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, he received the Spoke Award and served as state activation chairman. He was on the Board of Directors of Yalobusha Country Club, Blackmur Memorial Library and Yalobusha Historical Society. He and his wife were Grand Marshals of the Christmas Parade in 2009.
A lifetime member of the First United Methodist Church, he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees, and a member of the Administrative Board for many years as well as business manager. He was president of Wesley Fellowship Class. In 1979, he served on a conference work team to Haiti to build a school, sponsored by the British Methodists. He served as chairman of establishing an historical marker located in Railroad Park which documented the establishment of the North Mississippi Conference in Water Valley in 1870. In addition, a replica of an early Methodist Meeting House was built in 1973 containing a stained glass window from Wood Street Methodist Church. The chapel was destroyed by tornado on Easter Eve, 1984. In 1967 he chaired a conference committee dedicating three markers at Oak Hill Cemetery for 16 orphans whose graves were unmarked. The first Methodist Orphans Home in Mississippi was built in Water Valley in 1898. After the building burned on July 11, 1904, the home was moved to Jackson, MS.
A woodworker, Holloway would reduce portions of the trunk of the Sanctuary Christmon Tree to ashes used to impose crosses on the foreheads of the congregation on Ash Wednesday. Then, he crafted cedar crosses to be distributed on Ash Wednesday. In addition he made and donated crosses that were distributed throughout the Holy Land from the Lay Ministry Center at Lake Junaluska, Southeastern Jurisdictional Administrative Council of the United Methodist Church.
He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Lucia George Holloway of Water Valley, MS; niece, Clare George Eddleman of Clearwater, FL; nephews, Jesse Robert George of Southaven, MS and James Greer George of Memphis, TN; several great nephews.
Memorials may be sent to First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 288, Water Valley, MS 38965.