Mary Holderness

Mary Holderness, 85, passed away on Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:50am. She was born Mary Sawkins in Barking, Essex County, England, on June 3, 1925, during the reign of King George V. Her parents were Richard T. Sawkins and Annie Harriet (Bailey) Sawkins, and she was the youngest of 13 children. Following the great bombing blitz of World War II and still in her teens, Mary joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a supply truck driver. In 1944, she met Joseph W. Holderness, a US Army Air Corpsman from Ohio, while he was on active duty in Great Britain. They married in July. Mary and Joe Bill had three sons (and a daughter who died at birth.) The first, Bear, was also born in England in 1945 at her father's home in Barking. The two emigrated to the US in December while Joe Bill was still on active duty overseas, and she lived with his family in Ohio until he returned. After the war, he was stationed at Chanute AFB near Champaign, Illinois, and in 1949, their second son, Richard, was born there. In 1951, the family was transferred to Craig AFB, near Selma, Alabama. While living in Alabama, she was naturalized as a US citizen in Mobile. Military life took the family to the North Pacific and Colorado before finally settling in Homestead, Florida in 1958. Their third son, David (recently deceased) was born there in 1961. Mary was active in the Elks Lodge, and worked for the Homestead Gas Co as a salesperson and clerk until retiring in 1989, two years after Joe Bill's death. She sold her house and moved to Denver, where she lived for the rest of her life. Mary loved to travel, and made a number of visits to see family and friends in England, once aboard the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II. Over the years, she went to Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada. Closer to home, she could boast seeing 31 states, and went to Washington DC during the bicentennial year. She also enjoyed gardening, reading, dining out, and afternoon tea. Mary was a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She resided with Bear, and always enjoyed visits with her son Richard and his wife Debbie in South Carolina. She had two grandchildren, Brian and Jennifer, and five great-grandchildren: Dominick, twins Kaylee and Kaden, Nathan, and Bryson. She adored them all. Per Mary's wishes there will be no formal memorial service. Cremation was her selection, and her ashes will be scattered in the mountains on a beautiful sunny day later this year. There are plans to hold a memorial celebration party in May, when the flowers she so loved are blooming once again. Please share your memories of Mary and condolences with the family by selecting the ""Sign Guestbook"" button below.