Betsy (McBroom) Holloway

Tributes~Betsy (McBroom) Holloway

Betsy (McBroom) Holloway
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Date of Birth: 
April 4 1938
Date of Death: 
March 25 2008

Betsy Holloway died on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. She was born in Durham, NC, on April 4, 1938, the only child of Joseph Ira and Ruth Gates McBroom. After attending the Durham public schools and graduating from Durham High School, she received her B.A. degree in English from Duke University in 1958.

On December 17, 1960, she married Rufus Madison Holloway Jr. of Leesburg, FL, who was enrolled in the Duke University School of Medicine. The couple left Durham in 1963 for Gainesville, where Dr. Holloway served an ear, nose and throat residency at Shands Teaching Hospital. In 1967 they moved to Orlando, where Dr. Holloway maintained a surgical practice for thirty-five years. Mrs. Holloway received an M.A. degree in English from Stetson University in 1978.

Betsy was a frequent contributor of essays to the "My Word" column of The Orlando Sentinel. She was also the author of three histories of Durham: Heaven for Beginners, Unfinished Heaven, and A Proud History.She co-authored a memoir of early twentieth-century life in Orange County, North Carolina. She wrote the history of the Country Club of Orlando and with Orlando artist Jo Patterson, wrote Catechism: Intimations of Feline Immortality.

Betsy was a member of the Junior League of Greater Orlando and of the Rosalind Club, She served on the boards of the Florida Symphony Society, the Opera Gala Guild, and John Young Museum and Planetarium. At the time of her death she was president of the Friends of Watts Street School, lifetime member of the Orange County Historical Society, the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, Leesburg Heritage Society, Lake County Historical Society, and Friends of the Library organizations in Durham, Orlando, and Leesburg. She supported many animal protection societies. She was a member of the Congregational Church of Winter Park.

Her survivors include her beloved husband and son, Rufus M. Holloway, Jr., M.D. of Orlando and Michael Madison Holloway , M.D. of Ocala, her devoted sister-in-law, Ann Holloway Blackmon, Leesburg, nephew, Scott M. Holloway , St. Pete, niece, Cynthia Mangum, Leesburg, God Child, Allison Serafin, Raleigh, first cousins, Skip Lassiter and Gloria Wilkerson, and many other relatives and friends in Orlando and Leesburg, FL and Orange County and Durham, NC. Betsy's family history in North Carolina dates back to the Revolutionary War.

Betsy loved her family, her friends, and her pets; antique furniture and pattern glass; vintage postcards; the New Yorker magazine; music from the Golden Age of the American Musical Theatre; and American social history from 1880 until 1960.

Betsy was also a member for a short time (2006-2008) of the Third Friday Book Club - the longest running book club in the history of Central Florida. There is a notation in the 2008 minutes pertaining to her death: "Deceased 3-25-08. $190 Contribution from members, memorial to Betsy Holloway." Read more about the Third Friday Book Club at OrlandoMemory.info http://orlandomemory.info/memory/organization/third-friday-book-club

Place of Birth: 
Durham, North Carolina, United States
Place of Death: 
Orlando, Florida, United States
Primary State of Residence: 
Orlando, Florida, United States

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