Mary Louise Holder

Mary Louise Davis Holder, 91, passed away on Friday, April 27th, 2012.  She was born on September 10th, 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee, to Dr. Percy Moore Davis and Sarah Browyne Long Davis and grew up there with her brother Russell and sister Jane.  She was educated at Peabody Demonstration School in Nashville and Ward Belmont College, and in her youth she loved dancing to the Big Band music of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.  She married James Fred Holder Jr., captain of the 1941 Vanderbilt football team and worked in Nashville while Fred served as a gunnery officer aboard the cruiser U.S.S. Reno, winning commendations for actions in the Pacific during WW II.  Following the war, she and Fred lived in Milwaukee briefly and later returned to Nashville where two sons, James Fred III and Thomas Davis, were born.  The family later moved to Camden, Arkansas, where son Charles Ashley was born and where Fred managed a Navy munitions facility.  In 1957, the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where son Richard Burns was born.  She was associated with the Fort Worth Women’s Club and was also an active member of the Ridglea Presbyterian Church.  Fred passed away in 1975, and she later married J. D. Holder continuing to live in Fort Worth, where she joined and became a very active member of the White Settlement Baptist Church.  There, she participated in a number of women’s groups and also taught Sunday school.  As well, she devoted significant time to volunteer prison ministries and was beloved by those with whom she worked.  In all of these settings, she shared her wonderful warmth and personal skills with all around her.  She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Fred (father of her four sons), second husband J.D., brother Russell Davis, and sister Jane Davis Rickman.  She is survived by son Jim and wife Sharyn, son Tom and wife Joie, son Charles and wife Renee, son Richard and wife Gwen, and by husband Patrick McBurnett.  She is also survived by numerous grandchildren, nieces, and nephews who knew her with love as “Weezie”.  Services will be held at Greenwood Cemetery in Fort Worth at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, May 1st.  A graveside service will be held at Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville a 2:00 PM on Thursday, May 3rd. Mary Louise Davis Holder, 91, passed away on Friday, April 27th, 2012.  She was born on September 10th, 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee, to Dr. Percy Moore Davis and Sarah Browyne Long Davis and grew up there with her brother Russell and sister Jane.  She was educated at Peabody Demonstration School in Nashville and Ward Belmont College, and in her youth she loved dancing to the Big Band music of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.  She married James Fred Holder Jr., captain of the 1941 Vanderbilt football team and worked in Nashville while Fred served as a gunnery officer aboard the cruiser U.S.S. Reno, winning commendations for actions in the Pacific during WW II.  Following the war, she and Fred lived in Milwaukee briefly and later returned to Nashville where two sons, James Fred III and Thomas Davis, were born.  The family later moved to Camden, Arkansas, where son Charles Ashley was born and where Fred managed a Navy munitions facility.  In 1957, the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where son Richard Burns was born.  She was associated with the Fort Worth Women’s Club and was also an active member of the Ridglea Presbyterian Church.  Fred passed away in 1975, and she later married J. D. Holder continuing to live in Fort Worth, where she joined and became a very active member of the White Settlement Baptist Church.  There, she participated in a number of women’s groups and also taught Sunday school.  As well, she devoted significant time to volunteer prison ministries and was beloved by those with whom she worked.  In all of these settings, she shared her wonderful warmth and personal skills with all around her.  She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Fred (father of her four sons), second husband J.D., brother Russell Davis, and sister Jane Davis Rickman.  She is survived by son Jim and wife Sharyn, son Tom and wife Joie, son Charles and wife Renee, son Richard and wife Gwen, and by husband Patrick McBurnett.  She is also survived by numerous grandchildren, nieces, and nephews who knew her with love as “Weezie”.  Services will be held at Greenwood Cemetery in Fort Worth at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, May 1st.  A graveside service will be held at Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville a 2:00 PM on Thursday, May 3rd.