Mrs. Blanch Griggs, age 74, of Madison, died Thursday, May 6, 2004, at Greenwood Leflore Hospital in Greenwood, Mississippi.
Mrs. Griggs was born May 22, 1929, in Lexington, Miss., and was the daughter of Holsey Smith and Ethel Jefferson Smith. She is survived by her husband, Joseph Goss of Madison; seven sisters, Roberta Seale of Detroit, Mich., Louise Greer, Madora Morgan and Clara Garnett, all of Lexington, Miss.; Dorothy Williams and Elzbeth Williams, both of Memphis and Mablene Coleman of Chicago, Ill.; and three brothers, William Smith, Robert Smith and Curtis Smith, all of Lexington, Mississippi.
Visitation for Mrs. Griggs will be held on Thursday, May 13, 2004, from noon to 5 p.m. in the Chapel of Woodhouse Mortuary. Funeral services will be held on Friday, May 14, 2004, at 1 p.m. at St. John M.B. Church with Rev. James Brooks officiating. Burial will follow in Scott Bond Cemetery in Madison.
Dr. Overdis Roland Holiday, age 88, of Pine Bluff, died Monday, May 10, 2004, at his home.
Dr. Holiday, was born Dec. 5, 1915, the son of Sarah McKinley Holiday and Frank Holiday. He grew up in Palestine and served as a vocational agriculture teacher, county extension agent, high school principal and chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Arkansas AM&N College and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Dr. Holiday received numerous professional and civic awards including the Arkansas Department of Higher Education Meritorious Service Award; the Distinguished Service Award in Arkansas Agriculture from the Jesse W. Mason Sr. Foundation and he was a 2002 inductee into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame.
Dr. Holiday is survived by a foster daughter, Juanita Currie of Pine Bluff; a foster son, Marcus Chanay of Jackson, Miss.; cousins Thressia L. Beasley of Georgia and Thomas Beasley of Forrest City, and a host of other relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Irma Bell Sneed Holiday.
Funeral arrangements for Dr. Holiday are being made by P.K. Miller Mortuary in Pine Bluff.