Laurie Stigler Holland, 87, died peacefully Friday, January 18, 2019, at her home. Funeral services are at Parkway Funeral Home in Ridgeland on Thursday, January 24, 2019, at 2 p.m., preceded by visitation at 12 p.m. Burial will follow in Parkway Memorial Cemetery.
Born Laurie Lightcap Stigler on July 21, 1931, she was the daughter of the late Laurie Wynn Lightcap and Louis Stigler of Yazoo City. She was valedictorian of her Yazoo City High School graduating class of 1949. She graduated magna cum laude from Mississippi State College for Women, now Mississippi University for Women, with a degree in modern foreign languages in 1953. At the “W,” she was president of her sophomore and junior classes, editor of “The Spectator,” a member of Mortar Board, Sigma Pi Alpha and Pi Delta Epsilon, and selected for the Hall of Fame and “Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.” She was a member of the Hottentots, Black List and Lockhearts social clubs. After college, she was a news reporter for the Yazoo City Herald.
She had lived in Jackson since her marriage in 1955 to Hoyt T. Holland Jr., and was a longtime member of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church, having served as president of the Sunday School and chairman of the music committee. She sang in the Galloway Chancel Choir for more than four decades, starting in the early 1960s, and was active in church drama productions. She was invited to participate in the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts, a number of times, and sang in the International Choral Festival at Yorkminster Cathedral in York, U.K. She was on the executive board of the 1969 Mississippi Arts Festival and a member of the Mississippi Opera Chorus. She was a member of the One O’Clock Luncheon Club and her close-knit group of dear friends “The Sisters of the Sea,” and cherished her relationships with so many others.
She was a lifelong reader, lover of literature, music, history and art, and an avid bridge player. A gifted storyteller, she regaled relatives and friends with remembrances and family lore.
She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Hoyt T. Holland Jr. She is survived by her daughter, Beth Holland of Locust Valley, N.Y.; son and daughter-in-law, Ben and Alice Holland of Madison; daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Chris Rountree of Madison; grandchildren, Mary Leah Milnes of Arlington, Va., Hannah Milnes of Boston, Mass., and Holland, Haley and Christopher Rountree, all of Madison; sister, Mrs. Robert L. (Mary) Thompson of Pluto Plantation in Holmes County; sister-in-law, Mrs. Joseph C. (Josephine) Odom of Jackson; and many nieces and nephews, as well as their children and grandchildren.
Pallbearers are son-in-law Christopher A. Rountree Sr. and grandson Christopher A. Rountree Jr., both of Madison, and nephews William M. Thompson of Madison, Louis S. Thompson of Pluto Plantation, Michael Thompson of Greenwood and Richard H. Odom of Madison. Honorary pallbearers are Robert L. Thompson Jr. of Pluto Plantation, Harry Boadwee of Los Altos, Calif., Leslie Metcalfe of Madison and Byron Champlin of Concord, N.H.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the music department of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 1092, Jackson, MS 39215; the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 31954, Jackson, MS 39286; or to a favorite charity.
