Noris E Hollaway's Obituary
Noris E. Hollaway, born April 7, 1923 and passed away February 1, 2022 coming just shy of his 99th birthday, he lived a long and lustrous life that took him to various parts of the world that resulted in many lifelong friends. Physical fitness was always an important aspect in his life and was an avid sportsman and worked out and played golf well into his early 90’s as well as being a racquetball gold mentalist in the Senior Olympics several years running.
Preceded in death, his wife of 75 years, Gladys “Tutsie” Kilgore Hollaway in September 2020, son Larry Lee Hollaway in May 2008, and grand-daughter Ashley Nicole Hollaway in September 2008. He is survived by son’s Steve Hollaway of Fort Myers, Florida, and Gary Hollaway of Dallas, Texas.
Noris began his journey in Eva, Alabama born into the family of Otto and Myrthle Hollaway who was an educator throughout Otto’s career ending up at Auburn University as a professor of education, which was a forever mainstay in his life as well as his family’s.
Noris a WWII veteran and young 2nd Lieutenant met Tutsie at a USO dance for the GI’s while being stationed at Fort Benning Georgia as Tutsie was from nearby Columbus Georgia. As their relationship flourished and marriage came into the possibilities, Tutsie informed him she would not marry anyone in the military, she just didn’t want to move around that much. Noris then got his discharge before the wedding and went to work for the Department of Defence, Defence Logistics Agency, little did she know that was just the civilian form of the military.
As their first child was born, Steve, Noris was at an Auburn football game when he was summoned over the load speaker that he was needed at the hospital in Columbus. Now, Auburn being in a close game it was said that he turned to Otto and asked “do you think I can make it to halftime?” It’s not known if he stayed or went, but he did make it in time for the birth of his first son.
After several moves around Georgia, two to Atlanta, two to Columbus, one to Macon, and one to Albany, all within the first ten years of marriage, in 1965 the young family was sent to Battle Creek Michigan. They were the first in the entire family to ever live north of the Mason Dixon Line and had only seen snow once. That was about to change.
Battle Creek turned out to be fairly stable with no moves until a brief one-year assignment to Long Binh Vietnam in 1971 for Noris. Tutsie and the boys decided to return to Columbus during that time to be around her family. After his return, the entire family returned to Battle Creek until 1976 when he accepted a position in Wiesbaden, West Germany as Deputy Director of European operations, and the family packed up for another adventure. This was a 4-year commitment until 1980 and not knowing a single word of German, it was truly a learning curve that we all tried to pick-up on quickly. Our German neighbors used to get a kick out of Tutsie’s southern drawl as she bid farewell with a warm Auf Wiedersehen Ya’ll. Foreign travel and being able to go to East Germany during the cold war was a life changing experience for the family and an opportunity that was not the norm in those days and it did not go unappreciated.
Upon returning from Germany, Noris, Tutsie and Larry settled into the Washington D.C area and began working at the Pentagon, until Noris retired in 1981 after 38 years of distinguished federal service.
Retirement was what brought he and Tutsie to Fort Myers and quickly knew this was where they wanted to be. Tutsie’s brother and sister-in-law (Walter and Cathryn Kilgore) were living in Naples at the time and were a good source to become acclimated to Southwest Florida. As they both enjoyed and settled into retirement, they became involved in several charities, both local and international. Tutsie was an avid beachgoer as Noris hit the links. They both lived a long and enjoyable life with Auburn, Columbus, Battle Creek, Germany, and then Fort Myers all being a significant part of their lives. One well spent and lived!
They will be missed by all that knew them and the family that have such cherished memories to recall from. We thank you for the life you gave us and we love you both, and miss you deeply.
Services will be held in later spring or early summer of this year in Columbus Georgia, where it started and where it will end and they will both be together once again.
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