Lieut. W.L. Holmes Dies At Home Here
Popular Virginia State Police Officer Victim of Heart Attack
Lieut. William L. Holmes, 40, Virginia state highway police officer in charge of District 1, from Wytheville to Bristol, died of a heart attack at his home at 149 Nineteenth Street in Bristol at 5:45 o’clock yesterday morning. He had not been ill previously and was on active duty Friday night.
Lieut. Holmes, who was popular throughout Southwest Virginia and described by state police officials as one of the most efficient and highly respected officers of the department, had been with the state police for eight years. He was transferred to Bristol as lieutenant in charge of the district from Gate City four years ago, being promoted from corporal. He formerly was a school teacher in Smyth County and for a number of years served as a deputy sherriff [sic] in that county.
Born in Plasterco, Va., the son of L.H. Holmes and the late Mrs. Holmes, he attended the public schools of Smyth county and attended Emory and Henry college. He was a Mason and held his membership in the William King Lodge, A.F. & A.M. of Saltville, Va, and his religious affiliation was with the Presbyterian church.
Surviving are his widow, the former Miss Virginia Soulten [sic; should be Louthen]; three daughters, Doris, Jane and Nancy Holmes; his father, L.H. Holmes of Plasterco; three sisters, Miss Mary E. Holmes and Mrs. L.G. Price, Plasterco, and Mrs. H.F. Clear, Holston, Va. and two brothers James H. Holmes and George M. Holmes, both of Plasterco.
Funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon at the Central Presbyterian church, in charge of the pastor, Dr. Donald McIver. Burial will be in the Knollkreg cemetery in Abingdon, Va. State police officers will serve as active and honorary pall bearers.
The body, which will lie in state at the church for an hour before the funeral, was removed from the J. Paul Campbell Funeral home in Abingdon to the home here last evening.
Transcription of a column in the Bristol Herald Courier
October 20, 1944
Looking at Sport with Gene Thompson
We’re going to miss Bill Holmes.
Both as an officer who loved his sports, and who was a familiar figure at Municipal Stadium and Shaw Field, and as a straight-forward, dependable source of information on law enforcement activities in Southwest Virginia.
Courteous, soft-spoken and thoroughly efficient, Lieutenant Holmes was one of the most capable and popular members of the Virginia state police patrol ever to serve in the Bristol area.
His death was a stunning shock – and brought into clear relief the memory of the last time we worked a “police” case with him.
We stood outside the hospital emergency room with him while doctors and nurses were working swiftly over a half-dozen persons, four of them children, who had been cut and lacerated in a traffic accident on West State Street.
Nurses brought a little girl – crippled from childhood and wearing braces on both legs – from the emergency room and placed her on a table while another patient was taken inside.
She had been cut about the head and face and had just been bandaged.
The child was frightened, but trying hard to hold back the tears. Her father and mother were hovering close to a younger child, also cut and lacerated in the accident. For a moment no one was noticing her – for there was other work to do.
Lieutenant Holmes – who had three little girls of his own – walked over to the child. He slipped a quarter into her hand, smiled, and began to talk to her in a quiet, friendly manner.
In a moment the tension began to slip from her, and in a little while she was smiling and asking for a mirror so that she might see herself “all bandaged up.”
Her mother came – and Bill Holmes, his object accomplished, patted the child’s shoulder and walked away to do another job, the questioning of the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the accident.
Maybe it was that human touch about Lieutenant Holmes that made you like him – anyway, when I think of him I’ll remember that night at the hospital.
Contributor: William Holmes (48419102) • [email protected]
Popular Virginia State Police Officer Victim of Heart Attack
Lieut. William L. Holmes, 40, Virginia state highway police officer in charge of District 1, from Wytheville to Bristol, died of a heart attack at his home at 149 Nineteenth Street in Bristol at 5:45 o’clock yesterday morning. He had not been ill previously and was on active duty Friday night.
Lieut. Holmes, who was popular throughout Southwest Virginia and described by state police officials as one of the most efficient and highly respected officers of the department, had been with the state police for eight years. He was transferred to Bristol as lieutenant in charge of the district from Gate City four years ago, being promoted from corporal. He formerly was a school teacher in Smyth County and for a number of years served as a deputy sherriff [sic] in that county.
Born in Plasterco, Va., the son of L.H. Holmes and the late Mrs. Holmes, he attended the public schools of Smyth county and attended Emory and Henry college. He was a Mason and held his membership in the William King Lodge, A.F. & A.M. of Saltville, Va, and his religious affiliation was with the Presbyterian church.
Surviving are his widow, the former Miss Virginia Soulten [sic; should be Louthen]; three daughters, Doris, Jane and Nancy Holmes; his father, L.H. Holmes of Plasterco; three sisters, Miss Mary E. Holmes and Mrs. L.G. Price, Plasterco, and Mrs. H.F. Clear, Holston, Va. and two brothers James H. Holmes and George M. Holmes, both of Plasterco.
Funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon at the Central Presbyterian church, in charge of the pastor, Dr. Donald McIver. Burial will be in the Knollkreg cemetery in Abingdon, Va. State police officers will serve as active and honorary pall bearers.
The body, which will lie in state at the church for an hour before the funeral, was removed from the J. Paul Campbell Funeral home in Abingdon to the home here last evening.
Transcription of a column in the Bristol Herald Courier
October 20, 1944
Looking at Sport with Gene Thompson
We’re going to miss Bill Holmes.
Both as an officer who loved his sports, and who was a familiar figure at Municipal Stadium and Shaw Field, and as a straight-forward, dependable source of information on law enforcement activities in Southwest Virginia.
Courteous, soft-spoken and thoroughly efficient, Lieutenant Holmes was one of the most capable and popular members of the Virginia state police patrol ever to serve in the Bristol area.
His death was a stunning shock – and brought into clear relief the memory of the last time we worked a “police” case with him.
We stood outside the hospital emergency room with him while doctors and nurses were working swiftly over a half-dozen persons, four of them children, who had been cut and lacerated in a traffic accident on West State Street.
Nurses brought a little girl – crippled from childhood and wearing braces on both legs – from the emergency room and placed her on a table while another patient was taken inside.
She had been cut about the head and face and had just been bandaged.
The child was frightened, but trying hard to hold back the tears. Her father and mother were hovering close to a younger child, also cut and lacerated in the accident. For a moment no one was noticing her – for there was other work to do.
Lieutenant Holmes – who had three little girls of his own – walked over to the child. He slipped a quarter into her hand, smiled, and began to talk to her in a quiet, friendly manner.
In a moment the tension began to slip from her, and in a little while she was smiling and asking for a mirror so that she might see herself “all bandaged up.”
Her mother came – and Bill Holmes, his object accomplished, patted the child’s shoulder and walked away to do another job, the questioning of the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the accident.
Maybe it was that human touch about Lieutenant Holmes that made you like him – anyway, when I think of him I’ll remember that night at the hospital.
Contributor: William Holmes (48419102) • [email protected]
Lieut. W.L. Holmes Dies At Home Here
Popular Virginia State Police Officer Victim of Heart Attack
Lieut. William L. Holmes, 40, Virginia state highway police officer in charge of District 1, from Wytheville to Bristol, died of a heart attack at his home at 149 Nineteenth Street in Bristol at 5:45 o’clock yesterday morning. He had not been ill previously and was on active duty Friday night.
Lieut. Holmes, who was popular throughout Southwest Virginia and described by state police officials as one of the most efficient and highly respected officers of the department, had been with the state police for eight years. He was transferred to Bristol as lieutenant in charge of the district from Gate City four years ago, being promoted from corporal. He formerly was a school teacher in Smyth County and for a number of years served as a deputy sherriff [sic] in that county.
Born in Plasterco, Va., the son of L.H. Holmes and the late Mrs. Holmes, he attended the public schools of Smyth county and attended Emory and Henry college. He was a Mason and held his membership in the William King Lodge, A.F. & A.M. of Saltville, Va, and his religious affiliation was with the Presbyterian church.
Surviving are his widow, the former Miss Virginia Soulten [sic; should be Louthen]; three daughters, Doris, Jane and Nancy Holmes; his father, L.H. Holmes of Plasterco; three sisters, Miss Mary E. Holmes and Mrs. L.G. Price, Plasterco, and Mrs. H.F. Clear, Holston, Va. and two brothers James H. Holmes and George M. Holmes, both of Plasterco.
Funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon at the Central Presbyterian church, in charge of the pastor, Dr. Donald McIver. Burial will be in the Knollkreg cemetery in Abingdon, Va. State police officers will serve as active and honorary pall bearers.
The body, which will lie in state at the church for an hour before the funeral, was removed from the J. Paul Campbell Funeral home in Abingdon to the home here last evening.
Transcription of a column in the Bristol Herald Courier
October 20, 1944
Looking at Sport with Gene Thompson
We’re going to miss Bill Holmes.
Both as an officer who loved his sports, and who was a familiar figure at Municipal Stadium and Shaw Field, and as a straight-forward, dependable source of information on law enforcement activities in Southwest Virginia.
Courteous, soft-spoken and thoroughly efficient, Lieutenant Holmes was one of the most capable and popular members of the Virginia state police patrol ever to serve in the Bristol area.
His death was a stunning shock – and brought into clear relief the memory of the last time we worked a “police” case with him.
We stood outside the hospital emergency room with him while doctors and nurses were working swiftly over a half-dozen persons, four of them children, who had been cut and lacerated in a traffic accident on West State Street.
Nurses brought a little girl – crippled from childhood and wearing braces on both legs – from the emergency room and placed her on a table while another patient was taken inside.
She had been cut about the head and face and had just been bandaged.
The child was frightened, but trying hard to hold back the tears. Her father and mother were hovering close to a younger child, also cut and lacerated in the accident. For a moment no one was noticing her – for there was other work to do.
Lieutenant Holmes – who had three little girls of his own – walked over to the child. He slipped a quarter into her hand, smiled, and began to talk to her in a quiet, friendly manner.
In a moment the tension began to slip from her, and in a little while she was smiling and asking for a mirror so that she might see herself “all bandaged up.”
Her mother came – and Bill Holmes, his object accomplished, patted the child’s shoulder and walked away to do another job, the questioning of the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the accident.
Maybe it was that human touch about Lieutenant Holmes that made you like him – anyway, when I think of him I’ll remember that night at the hospital.
Contributor: William Holmes (48419102) • [email protected]
Popular Virginia State Police Officer Victim of Heart Attack
Lieut. William L. Holmes, 40, Virginia state highway police officer in charge of District 1, from Wytheville to Bristol, died of a heart attack at his home at 149 Nineteenth Street in Bristol at 5:45 o’clock yesterday morning. He had not been ill previously and was on active duty Friday night.
Lieut. Holmes, who was popular throughout Southwest Virginia and described by state police officials as one of the most efficient and highly respected officers of the department, had been with the state police for eight years. He was transferred to Bristol as lieutenant in charge of the district from Gate City four years ago, being promoted from corporal. He formerly was a school teacher in Smyth County and for a number of years served as a deputy sherriff [sic] in that county.
Born in Plasterco, Va., the son of L.H. Holmes and the late Mrs. Holmes, he attended the public schools of Smyth county and attended Emory and Henry college. He was a Mason and held his membership in the William King Lodge, A.F. & A.M. of Saltville, Va, and his religious affiliation was with the Presbyterian church.
Surviving are his widow, the former Miss Virginia Soulten [sic; should be Louthen]; three daughters, Doris, Jane and Nancy Holmes; his father, L.H. Holmes of Plasterco; three sisters, Miss Mary E. Holmes and Mrs. L.G. Price, Plasterco, and Mrs. H.F. Clear, Holston, Va. and two brothers James H. Holmes and George M. Holmes, both of Plasterco.
Funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon at the Central Presbyterian church, in charge of the pastor, Dr. Donald McIver. Burial will be in the Knollkreg cemetery in Abingdon, Va. State police officers will serve as active and honorary pall bearers.
The body, which will lie in state at the church for an hour before the funeral, was removed from the J. Paul Campbell Funeral home in Abingdon to the home here last evening.
Transcription of a column in the Bristol Herald Courier
October 20, 1944
Looking at Sport with Gene Thompson
We’re going to miss Bill Holmes.
Both as an officer who loved his sports, and who was a familiar figure at Municipal Stadium and Shaw Field, and as a straight-forward, dependable source of information on law enforcement activities in Southwest Virginia.
Courteous, soft-spoken and thoroughly efficient, Lieutenant Holmes was one of the most capable and popular members of the Virginia state police patrol ever to serve in the Bristol area.
His death was a stunning shock – and brought into clear relief the memory of the last time we worked a “police” case with him.
We stood outside the hospital emergency room with him while doctors and nurses were working swiftly over a half-dozen persons, four of them children, who had been cut and lacerated in a traffic accident on West State Street.
Nurses brought a little girl – crippled from childhood and wearing braces on both legs – from the emergency room and placed her on a table while another patient was taken inside.
She had been cut about the head and face and had just been bandaged.
The child was frightened, but trying hard to hold back the tears. Her father and mother were hovering close to a younger child, also cut and lacerated in the accident. For a moment no one was noticing her – for there was other work to do.
Lieutenant Holmes – who had three little girls of his own – walked over to the child. He slipped a quarter into her hand, smiled, and began to talk to her in a quiet, friendly manner.
In a moment the tension began to slip from her, and in a little while she was smiling and asking for a mirror so that she might see herself “all bandaged up.”
Her mother came – and Bill Holmes, his object accomplished, patted the child’s shoulder and walked away to do another job, the questioning of the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the accident.
Maybe it was that human touch about Lieutenant Holmes that made you like him – anyway, when I think of him I’ll remember that night at the hospital.
Contributor: William Holmes (48419102) • [email protected]
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