Dr. V.M. Holland, M.D. : The Life of My Husband, an East Texas Country Doctor

Dr. V.M. Holland M.D.: The Life of My Husband,an East Texas Country Doctor,
 by Mrs. V.M. Holland, Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, R.N., Captain US Army WWII
Trans-scripted letter posted by Fred L. Holland, entitled "Virgil M. Holland, V.M. Holland, M.D"., dated 4 March 1995


Virgil Holland was born in Fairplay, Panola County, Texas, on 4 March 1918. His parents were Lois Allison Holland of Fairplay, Texas and Mordie Holland of Benton County and Carol County, Tennessee. Virgil had one sister, Marguerite, and three Brothers, Samuel, Leland, and James (known as “Bill”) Holland. His Father was a farmer, rancher and carpenter. His mother was a homemaker. Both parents were life long community leaders in the Methodist Church, local schools, county fairs, soil conservation, home demonstrations, and youth socials and activities.

Virgil attended the rural school in Fairplay and graduated from from Carthage High School in 1934. Only 11 years of public schooling was required for graduation at that time, and he had been advanced two grades. He was valedictorian and only 15. After graduation, he enrolled in the Baptist College of Marshall in Marshall, Texas. His Uncle Sam Allison paid his tuition and book fees: he paid his room and board by waiting on tables and washing dishes in the college cafeteria, managed by Mrs.Fant, mother of the Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, Mr. Clyde E. Fant. [ Mayor Clyde Fant would be the guest speaker at the CHS graduation commencement of Virgil’s son, Frederick Leon Holland, in 1971.] According to Wikipedia,

Clyde Fant was a native of Linden in Cass County, Texas. He was one of six children of Mr. and Mrs. John Preston Fant. John Fant was a cotton gin owner and a onetime Texas state legislator. Fant graduated in 1925 from the former Marshall (Texas) College, now East Texas Baptist University. He taught school for a year in Blocker, a since abandoned community near Marshall, the seat of Harrison County. He then worked for a lumber company in east Texas and was thereafter associated with Southwestern Gas and Electric Company. He was an executive with Interstate Electric Company, with seven years of service with the firm, when he was transferred to Shreveport.]

Mrs. Fant was a lifelong friend and was admired and respected by her “helpers.”

Virgil was a “whiz” in math, chemistry, biology, physics, and history. This background provided good career choices and upon completion of enough hours for a teacher’s certificate and for graduation, he taught in the Fairplay School. He was a scholar, educator, hard worker, and teacher all of his adult life.

In May 1941, Virgil Mordie Holland joined the US Navy and served 4 years, 4 months, and 22 days. During those years of service, in Florida and California, and overseas on Guam and Australia, he was honorably discharged in 1945 as a Chief Pharmacist's Mate, (A.A.). It was during his WW II service that he decided his goal was to “ enter medical school after his discharge from the service, and to become a general practitioner (G.P.) of medicine after graduation and proper training.”

Virgil obtained a B.S. Degree through extra college work at Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas. Graduating from there with honors, he was admitted to the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston, Texas without having to take an entrance exam in 1946. While there for four years of study, he worked at night for the Sisters of Charity and the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. During the Summer, he “externed” at the Memorial Hospital in Henderson, Texas, and the Marshall Hospital in Marshall, Texas. In school, he was a member of a fraternity, living in their house and enjoying all their activities. Virgil graduated from the University of Texas Medical School in June 1950. He was third in his class of 96 and was admitted into Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Honor Medical Society.

The Texas Board of Medical Examiners granted Virgil M. Holland, B.S., M.D., this license to practice medicine in Texas in July 1950. Before the examination, he had taken time to marry Evangeline Dennard, Carthage I.S.D. public school’s first and only school nurse from 1947 - 1951. The couple felt they were very fortunate to be able to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary together, before his death in 1990.

Dr. Holland interned at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Gregory, head of the Medical Department in the school wanted him to specialize in internal medicine and become an internal medical diagnostician. Dr. Holland was pleased to receive the offer, but he he felt it “would take too long and I wasn’t getting any younger.” He wanted to enter general practice, become a family physician, and fulfill his goal. He was a life [“Old Red”] member of the U.T. Galveston Medical School’s Alumni Association.

Upon completion of his John Sealy service, Dr. V.M. Holland had been offered a partnership to enter general practice at the Carthage Medical and Surgical Clinic in Carthage, Texas with Dr. Carl Prince and Dr. W.C. Smith: Mrs. V.M. Holland would continue to be the school nurse, but their plans had to change. Dr. W.C. Smith notified Dr. V.M. Holland that the partnership had an obligation to take back their partner, Dr. James M. Ashby, who was returning from the Korean War. The office space that was to be Dr. V.M. Holland would instead be returned to Dr. Ashby.

Dr. Lynn Hooker, whose clinic was also on West Panola, wanted Dr. V.M. Holland to join his clinical practice: but there was not enough room to set up an immediate practice there. This emergency need was taken care of by Dr. D. B. Daniel graciously offering to rent an office to Dr. Holland at the Panola Clinic on North Daniel Street for solo general practice. This help at this crucial time, after years of study and work, was always appreciated by both Dr. and Mrs. Holland in the years that followed.

However, Dr. Holland desired to enter a group practice, and soon he received an offer to join Dr. Coy Stone and Dr. Alfred “Al” Menson in Hobbs, New Mexico. It was too good an offer to turn down. Mr. Q. M. Martin, Superintendent of Carthage Independent School District, promised to release Evangeline, if she could talk Lou Tatum, R.N. into becoming the school nurse for Carthage I.S.D. The rest became history for Lou Tatum and school nursing in Panola County!

 (Hurray for Lou and Coach Tatum --- God Bless you! Always!)

-Evangeline, March 4, 1995


TO BE CONTINUED...

Eula Holmes Dennard, Mother of Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, Wife of Dr. V.M. Holland

Eula Holmes Dennard

Birth: Dec. 22, 1896 Death: Jan. 26, 1919

Photo: After review this unmarked photo might be Eula with her mother Ada Costilla Drikell Holmes

If you have seen this photo before or have a copy of it and know who is in it, please leave a comment for me. FLH Editor

Spouse: Buford Leon Dennard

Parents: Henry Franklin Holmes (1868 - 1941) Ada Driskell Holmes (1873 - 1959)

Inscription reads: Wife of B.L. Dennard

Burial: Antioch Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery Carthage Panola County Texas, USA

Created by: EastTexan, on Find A Grave Memorial# 19760849

My father, Dr. V.M. Hollland, of Fairplay, Texas was born today.

His father was David Mordie Holland. His mother was Louise Allison. Into a farming family in Fairplay, Texas, which is between Carthage, Texas and Henderson, Texas, he was the oldest of five children.

He is shown here with his family in Hobbs, New Mexico, where he was a physician, next to him is his son Frederick Leon Holland, his wife Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, who is holding his daughter Mary Marie Holland. Dad was 72 when he died. What my mother told me was that he had been working out at the farm at Fairplay clearing a blocked sewage line to a septic tank on a white house where Bob Tatum, who was laying claim to being one of Mother's Dennard relatives,  and his  aging mother were staying. It was a cold October day and dad had gotten back after dark and was sitting in the kitchen drinking hot tea when he died suddenly and quickly in his work overalls and muddy farm boots, in his own home. This blog is dedicated to Dr. V.M. Holland, who grew up in East Texas, traveled around the world in the US Navy during World War II and ended up back in Panola County with the neighbors and family he grew up with during the Great Depression of 20th Century America. He was a young man during WWII and joined what has been called "The Greatest Generation" however, he would have argued with that assessment of his generation.

Jessie Jo Dennard Wedgeworth, Sister-in-Law to Dr. V. M. Holland

Jessie Jo Dennard Wedgeworth

"Streaks Across The Sky"

by Jessie Jo Wedgeworth © 2013
from from her book Chimes of Time: A Collection of Poems

This morning-blue sky
Is overlaid with light streaks,
As tiny specks move swiftly
In the endless vastness,
Criss-cross to form contrails,
Which puff full, then,
Pushed by wind currents,
Break into thin wisps
And drift away into farther blue;
Streaks left as jets pass through.

What streaks do I leave, passing?

Occasional clean streaks
Sweeping dirty floors
Swiping spotted windows
Swishing dusty furniture

Little streaks of cheer
Cover others’ heartaches
Carry their loads
Comfort their souls

Is this all I can do?

My Prayer —
Please help me,
Speck that I am,
Leave meaningful streaks
Across the arch of my existence.


NOTE: my Aunt Jessie Jo was buried on the 10th Anniversity of  the tragic lost of  the shuttle Columbia, which broke apart as it re-entered the atmosphere and streaked across the Texas skies. Burned parts of the shattered spacecraft rained down across a broad expanses, much of it centered over Hemphill, Texas.

Jessie Dennard and family, c. 1930  based on the image of  Hilda Dennard (  85 in 2013) who appears to be  between 1 and 2 in this photo in the arms of her mother. Marion Dennard holding the doll in the front row thinks that is a good date for this photo, which shows Jessie Jo Dennard between her older step-sister Evangeline Neal Dennard ( to become Dr. V. M. Holland 's wife) and her younger brother James Dennard.

Like most members of both the Dennard and the Wedgeworth families, I have always felt close to my Aunt Jessie Jo Dennard Wedgeworth.  Her son Tracy Wedgeworth (Denny) was like my brother when I was grewing up as a boy up in Panola County. Her husband Tracy Wedgeworth (Uncle Tracy)  was one of the greatest men I have every known in my life. I used to follow him around like a puppy on trips to the dairy barn,  where I listen to the sounds of his voice and the sounds of the dairy and the smell of his pipe smoke and the cows with their feed, to the pasture to help out a cow having troubles with calfing, to a haunted house in a tractor pulled hay wagon one night, to have a gilt serviced by a boar, and always back again to Aunt Jo's table for my first (and by means not last) cup of coffee at the age of four or five... Jo had the largest platter of fried eggs I had ever seen in my life at her breakfast table for hard working dairy hands.  Later she worked at First National Bank where she retired with plans to travel with Tracy... who then passed away. Her Nanna grandmother career kicked into high gear... and along with it came her passion for writing poems, short stories, observations on life in and around Panola county. Her books were published for awhile ( and she had a large email list following and won  regional awards for poetry and short stories. Those books, especially the Joisms Series, were very popular with my Mom, Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, who was her older step-sister,  and with my Wife, Deborah Ann Richey McAlister Holland, who is also an author,  and her small, self published booklets can still find them in libraries if you look hard enough. And then her brilliant flame slowly went out that fueled her writing. Her life became very quite.  She was always so polite and courteous when we visited in those later years... she told me on one visit not long ago that "I am done with that [my writing] you will have to make do with what you've got." Then she smiled and asked about how I was doing and how my family was doing ... Her life story was a great one. I will have to do with what I got of it. Hope you were in it. I am glad to have been in her story among the histories of  East Texas.


Jessie Jo Dennard Wedgeworth
http://www.hawthornfuneralhome.com/
July 1st, 1922 - January 30th, 2013

Obituary:

Quotes were writen by Jessie Jo Wedgewoth from her bio, "About Me" , from Chimes of Time: A Collection of Poems



"When I was born on a cotton farm near Terrell, Texas on a hot summer day in 1922, I was named after my grandfathers, Jesse Dennard and Joseph Heath. I have always been proud of my name.” Jessie Jo Dennard Wedgeworth was born July 1, 1922. She was one of four children born to the marriage of Buford Leon Dennard and Loma Heath Dennard. “We moved to East Texas when I was twelve; two years later we settled in the Clayton Community, and I still live within two miles of that place, as the crow flies. I graduated from Carthage High School in 1939 and attended SFA at Nacogdoches.”


Jesse married Tracy Howard Wedgeworth November 27, 1940. “In WWlI my husband, Tracy, was drafted and with our two little girls, Peggy and Patsy, I lived with my parents at Irving. When my husband was discharged from the army, we returned to East Texas, bought land and operated a daiiy many years. Our son, Denny, was born during this time. We worked hard developing the lfe we wanted and we were a happy, close-knit family, with our home and church the center of our lives.” Mrs. Wedgeworth was a member of the Cedar Grove Baptist Church where she served as the church clerk for 50 years. “After our two daughters left for college, I began a career in banking, which lasted over twenty-three years.” Jesse worked for the First National Bank of Carthage. “This was a very educational and fulfilling experience. My husband died of lung cancer two months after I retired in 1987, and I seriously began writing poetry and articles to help heal the grief of being forced to carve a new life alone.” Mrs. Wedgeworth was a writer of Poetry and member of the Rusk County Poetry Society. She volunteered with the Panola County Historical and Genealogical Association in the Old Jail House [where she worked with Dr. V. M. Holland, her brother-in-law, on historical reseach of Panola County]. She is preceded in death by her parents, husband, Tracy Wedgeworth in 1987, son-in-law, John Meek, sister, Evangeline Holland and brother, James C. Dennard.

Mrs. Wedgeworth is survived by her children, Peggy Wedgeworth of Nacogdoches, Patsy Waldrop and husband Doug of Carthage, Denny Wedgeworth and wjfè Barbara of Longview, brother, Robert H. Dennard and wfe Jane of Croton-on-Hudson, NY, grandchildren and great grandchildren, Dawn and Dan Killough, Abbie and J.P. of Winters, David Waidrop of Clayton and Fiancé Cris Barkowski of Bentonville, AR, stepdaughter, Madeline Lee of Pine Tree, Jessica and Kirk Carlisle, Anna Grace of Longview, Sabrina and Mark Westfall of Nacogdoches, step grandchildren, Jamie and Bart Eppenauer, Alex, Alyssa and Luke, Tern Lightfoot, Nolan and Pam Meek, Keith and Karen Meek, and Melanie.

Serving as pallbearers will be the Dennard and Wedgeworth nephews. The family
requests memorials to
 Cedar Grove Baptist Church, 1896 CR 106, Carthage, Texas
75633, Bethlehem Cemetery, 181 Emma Drive, Diana, Texas 75640, Marian Place
Assisted Living, 1690 NE Loop 59, Carthage, Texas 75633 or The Old Jail, 213 N.
Shelby, Carthage, Texas, 75633.


Funeral services for Mrs. Jessie Jo Dennard Wedgeworth, 90, of Carthage, Texas were held at  2:00 p.m. Friday, February 1, 2013 at the Cedar Grove Baptist Church with Rev. Freddy Mason and Rev. Dale Read officiating. Burial followed in the Bethlehem Cemetery under the direction of Hawthorn Funeral Home. Family visitation was on  Thursday 6-8:00 p.m. at the Wawthorn funeral home. Mrs. Wedgeworth died January 30, 2013 in Carthage, Texas.

Cemetery:
http://mapq.st/WDafJ8
Bethlehem Cemetery
1343 CR 108
Carthage, TX 75633

Books by Jessie Jo Wedgeworth (c) 2013

Chimes of Time: A Collection of Poems
http://books.google.com/books/about/Chimes_of_Time.html?id=BXvqtgAACAAJ

Joisms.

Joisms 2, Etc.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Joisms_II_Etc.html?id=piTeGwAACAAJ

A History of Cedar Grove Baptist Church
http://www.carthagetexas.com/center/churches/Cedar_Grove.htm

Bethlehem Cemetery, Genealogical Survey 1867-1990: Panola County, Texas

(c) Bethlehem Cemetery Association, 1990 - 114 pages

http://books.google.com/books/about/Bethlehem_Cemetery_Genealogical_Survey_1.html?id=nKiLHwAACAAJ







Sister to Robert H. Dennard , Fellow at IBM, inventor of DRAM

http://www.angelfire.com/games3/BKBT/bio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Dennard

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/dennard.htm