The world was a different place when Dorma Earl Holt was born in southern Alamance County exactly 100 years ago this Saturday.
When Holt came into this world on August 23, 1925, it was by way of a simple home birth in the unincorporated community of Snow Camp. As he grew up, the young Alamance County native developed a strong work ethic as he helped out his father, Alfred Talton Holt, on the family farm. He also got his introduction to commerce as he watched his mother, Lessie Cooper Holt, tend counter at a small country store that sold dairy products and produce.
Holt went on to have a typical upbringing alongside his older sister Mary Blanch Guthrie (née Holt).
He mastered the three “Rs” at Sylvan School. He spent his free time playing baseball and basketball with his friends, and he met new ones at a 4-H camp that he attended each year.
As was the norm at the time, Holt got his first job outside the home at the age of 15. He initially worked at a flour and feed mill in Asheboro before he took on a post at Alamance Hosiery Mill, where he dyed socks and mixed dyes for use in the trade.
Holt’s life underwent a radical transformation when he received a letter from the Selective Service Administration shortly before his 19th birthday. It was the summer of 1944, and the United States Army needed every able-bodied young man it could find to continue the reconquest of Europe that began on June 6 of that same year.
Holt was initially dispatched to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for basic training. He then set off for Great Britian aboard a troop transport christened the Aquitania. Holt and his fellow recruits were later ferried across the English Channel, where they joined the Allied advance into Nazi-occupied Europe. Holt was assigned to a DUKW, or “duck boat” – an amphibious vehicle that bore him across the Rhine during the German counteroffensive that came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. Holt later traveled to Austria where he helped liberate the Mauthausen concentration camp during the final month of fighting in Europe.
With the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945, Holt was reassigned to the Pacific Theater to take part in the impending invasion of Imperial Japan. The members of this invasion force were spared the ordeal of a full-out fight on the beaches when the Japanese leadership surrendered following the deployment of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Holt nevertheless recalled having a close brush with death when his ship was caught up in a typhoon as it passed through the Philippines. Things proved much quieter after his unit landed in Tokyo, where Holt served in a transport detail until he was discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1946.
Alamance County might’ve seemed a bit anticlimactic after two years of active duty on two different continents. But Holt made the most of his return to civilian life. He initially set himself up as the owner of his own broom company, which he admits, in retrospect, was “not a sweeping success.” From there, he went on to work for a couple of other, more established companies – culminating in 1949 when he landed a managerial gig with Sears, Roebuck & Company.
Holt continued to work for Sears until he retired in 1989. In the meantime, he raised poultry for 22-years – a side job that he confesses soured his taste for chicken. And following his retirement from Sears, he put in another 15 years working part-time for Nielson Data Collection.
Another milestone in Holt’s life occurred in 1947 when Holt met his future wife Maryellen Millaway on a blind date set up by some mutual friends. The couple tied the knot on October 3, 1948. That same year, Maryellen obtained a pharmacy degree from UNC Chapel Hill and began to dispense prescriptions at Mann’s Cut-Rate Drug Store – making her the first female pharmacist in Alamance County.
The Holts have remained together since their nuptials nearly 77 years ago. During that time, they raised three children. Their eldest, who was named Dorma Earl, Jr. after his father, would go on to serve as the Dean of Arts at Lone Star College in Pasadena. Their daughter, Pamela Buchanan Johnson, worked in logistics at Konica Manufacturing and in inventory control at Lowes Foods before she retired. Meanwhile, their youngest – Timothy Millaway Holt – still lives in Burlington, where he owns a music store and sound system installation service.
In addition to their three children, the Holts have an extended family that includes two grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild, and four nieces. They’ve also formed many friendships through their lifelong affiliation with the Methodist church and their 22 years as volunteers at Alamance Regional Medical Center.
The couple’s friends and relatives will be on hand when Holt celebrates his 100th birthday on Saturday. As full of vigor as ever, according to his daughter Pamela Johnson, the expectant centenarian still drives, cooks, mows the lawn, saws logs, and tunes in to his beloved Atlanta Braves when baseball season’s in full swing. And, as a warning to anyone who dares show up late for Saturday’s big fete, his daughter points out that Holt also marks time on the same, reliable Rolex that he picked up on his deployment in Tokyo.
“Dorma is still kicking,” Johnson goes on to stress, “and the Rolex is still ticking.”
