Lillie Mae Glasscock Holmes, of Madison, Miss., a generous wife, mother and grandmother and a retired teacher from Alabama, passed away Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, while in hospice care at St. Catherine’s Siena Center, Madison, Miss., at the age of 88. Mrs. Holmes, truly another member of our country’s “Greatest Generation,” will be laid to rest at Dement Cemetery near Athens, Ala.

The funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the chapel of Spry Funeral Home in Athens. Dan Chambers, minister of the Maryville Church of Christ, Maryville, Tenn., will conduct the service. The family will receive friends from 11 a.m. until 1p.m. Friday at the funeral home. Burial will immediately follow the service.

Mrs. Holmes was preceded in death by her loving husband of 33 years, Milton Turner Holmes Jr. of Tanner, a well-known North Alabama educator. She was also preceded in death by her daughter, Millicent Stuart Holmes Compton of Brentwood, Tenn.; her grandson, Matthew Stuart Long of Jackson, Miss.; and her parents, Mace Ryan Glasscock and Mattie Maria Mote Glasscock of Hartselle. Her sister, Rubie Ellen Aycock of Shellman, Ga.; her brothers, Joseph Ottis Glasscock and Mace Ryan Glasscock Jr., both of Hartselle, and Gordon Merritt Glasscock of Florence, too, preceded Mrs. Holmes into eternity.

Surviving Mrs. Holmes are her daughter, Rebecca Merritt Holmes Long and husband Dr. Billy W. Long of Madison, Miss.; her son, Dr. Gregory Milton Holmes and wife Laura Kathryn Holmes of Maryville, Tenn.; and her son-in-law, Paul Dean Compton and wife Sara Compton of Brentwood, Tenn.

Mrs. Holmes’ posterity of grandchildren are Scott Holmes Long and wife Katherine of Jackson, Miss., David Turner Long of Palo Alto, Calif., Jane Merritt Compton Holmberg and husband James of New York, N.Y., Gregory Ryan Compton and wife Heidi of Nashville, Tenn., Carl Peterson Compton of Boston, Mass., Kathryn Meriah Holmes of New York, N.Y., and Benjamin Brindley Holmes and Mary-Owen McKay Holmes, both of Maryville, Tenn.

Mrs. Holmes was born May 6, 1919, in her Glasscock family home on Rock Street in Hartselle. She graduated from Morgan County High School in Hartselle and earned degrees in home economics and education from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (later Auburn University) in 1946. During World War II, she worked as an inspector of artillery shells in a munitions plant in Decatur. Following the war, she served as an Alabama State Home-Demonstration Agent in Limestone County. It was there that she met her future husband, Milton T. Holmes Jr. They married July 9, 1949, in Hartselle. She bore her three children in Huntsville, and she lovingly taught them culture, courtesy and grace. The value of higher education was Mrs. Holmes’ imperative.

Mrs. Holmes worked three decades teaching high school home economics at schools in Jackson, Morgan and Limestone counties in Alabama before her retirement. Mrs. Holmes enjoyed sewing, gardening and canning fruits and vegetables. An active member of the Colonel John Robins Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she was an avid student of family history and genealogy, enjoying numerous journeys throughout North Alabama and the Southeast, gathering a wealth of family information and passing it on to her descendants. She corresponded with fellow genealogists from California, Texas, Georgia, Virginia and England, after having started her research while working in the library at Auburn University. She loved her husband and her children more than all else, and she was extremely proud of the many accomplishments of all her grandchildren. Mrs. Holmes was a member of the Baptist faith.

Pallbearers will be Mrs. Holmes’ grandsons and her grandson-in-law.

Honorary pallbearers will be Mrs. Holmes’ nephews.

Mrs. Holmes will be laid to rest beside her husband at the Dement Cemetery, in Limestone County, near Athens.

The family would like to express great thanks to the nurses and staff of St. Catherine’s and to Dr. George Patton for their kind and gracious care of our mother.

Memorials can be made to the National Daughters of the American Revolution, to the Consumer Sciences Department of Auburn University, or to a charity of one’s choice.