YesterYear: Frank Holloway - Part 2
 | Author:
Linda Huth
Linda Huth: MT43 News Board Member and Copy Editor |
Editor's Note: Frank Holloway was a well-respected, well-loved member of the Broadwater Community. There are many people here who remember Frank. This is a 3 part article about Frank as remembered by Linda Huth.
Frank Holloway - Part 2
Frank was very active in the community!
I won’t even attempt to name the local organizations he served. I was surprised when I read in his obituary that he was a member of the Episcopal Church, American Legion and Auxiliary; VFW and Auxiliary, Masonic Lodge, and was an honorary member of the Fire Department, Rotary, Order of Rainbow for Girls and Jaycees. Although these are more organizations than many people are affiliated with, I would have thought he belonged to more. And he did, but not “officially” I guess.
I found an article from the “Townsend Star” that described him as follows:
“Santa Claus, coffee maker, ticket seller and taker, fireman, very good neighbor. Anyone in Broadwater County would recognize who was being described”. It further states: “Are you sick in the hospital? Frank will probably be in. Is Rainbow, Star, LDS ladies, or ANYONE giving a dinner? Frank’s in the kitchen. Are the firemen, chamber, rodeo association, and March of Dimes having a function? Frank is selling and taking tickets. Is someone home alone and not too strong? Frank is running errands. Did you see Santa go by? Where’s Frank?”
This paragraph pretty much sums it up. He worked for and with everyone:
In February 1971 the American Legion and Auxiliary hosted an event to honor him at a reception at the Legion Club. In their article in the “Townsend Star” about the reception they said, among other things, “For many years Frank has helped virtually every organization in town with whatever project they have underway. He need not belong to the group, or church or association, but when there is work to be done, he’s the first one there and the last one to leave. He’s poured a lake full of coffee, washed enough dishes to reach to the moon and back, sold tickets to everything that has ever happened in Townsend, weighed fish, cleaned lawns, carried wood and brought groceries.”
Mayor Rudy Lundborg presented Frank with a framed copy of a proclamation that made February 14, 1978 “Frank Hollaway Day” in Townsend. During the program it was noted that Mr. Holloway recognizes no generation gap, visiting with Head Start children and senior citizens.
In the February 17, 1978 “Your Time”, a supplement to “The Independent Record” and the “Townsend Star” there was a lengthy article entitled: “Frank Holloway Fills His Leisure with Work”. This article is a wealth of information about Frank. It, not only, clarified some parts of his life of which I was uncertain, but it also verified a lot of what I have said.
Some quotes from the article follow:
“I’m no house plant,” Frank Holloway says, laughing. “I like to keep busy”.
“Anybody that’s 87, eats good and sleeps good and gets around like I do is lucky,”.
“That’s what keeps a person young – keeping busy.”
With a twinkle in his age-clouded eyes, Holloway explained that some of those activities are because “I like to be around food”.
The same reasoning surfaced to explain why Holloway liked his job as county assessor. For 32 years he traveled the county as the dreaded tax assessor. But he wasn’t treated with loathing. Instead he was fed”. He was a tall, slender man and he loved to eat! I have wondered if he planned his visits so he would arrive at noon to the places that housed the best cooks in the county and he knew who they were!
“’They knew it (tax assessment) was something that had to be done,’ he said. ‘I used to eat dinner with them - sometimes supper too. It was wonderful’”
But the farmers and ranchers had at least one reason to treat Frank kindly:
“There is hardly a rancher in the valley who hasn’t had him help at least one day”, said his wife, Hazel.
Starting during World War II, he would do his work in the assessor’s office and then go out and work on ranches and he never accepted any pay for the work.
The photographs are from the Broadwater County Museum collection. Visit the museum to view historical photographs of Broadwater County.
Article Images
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PhotoCredit: Broadwater County Museum
Image 1 Caption: Frank Holloway
