It’s a fact that Robert “Bob” Holt was the oldest man in Calhoun County, and it could be argued that he was also the best dressed.
Bob Holt lived in Albion for 79 years. According to his obituary, distributed at his memorial on Sept. 14, Bob served in the Army from 1941 to 1945 in the 349th Field Artillery Battalion. He was honorably discharged and worked for the Albion Malleable Iron Company for 35 years. He died at age 106 on Aug. 31.
Even at 106 years old, the World War II veteran still dressed himself every day. From bowties to baseball caps, he was proud of the fact that he bought and put together all of his outfits himself. Bob Holt married Albion native Ethel Holt in 1998. Ethel said her husband was “the best-dressed man in Albion.”
“In 26 years, I never had to dress that man,” Ethel Holt said. “He’ll tell everybody ‘I got up this morning and put my clothes on, put my shoes on the right foot.’”
Bob Holt was married for a total of 80 years: 54 years with his first wife, LaVerne, and 26 years with his second wife, Ethel.
“I’ll just be true – he chased me, I didn’t chase him,” Ethel Holt said.
They got engaged on a Friday date night at the mall, Ethel said. Bob proposed to Ethel before they even got inside. They spent the rest of their date picking out a ring from JCPenney, and Ethel said she has never taken the ring off.
“A lot of people were shocked, because of our age,” Ethel Holt said. “The age didn’t make no difference. We had fun.”
Bob was 29 years older than Ethel, but she said the age gap never bothered them. Some of his children from his first marriage didn’t approve at first, but “all of them came around.”
“They thought I had married him for his money, then they found out I had more money than he did,” Ethel Holt said.
Ethel and Bob’s relationship was always filled with laughter and good-natured teasing. Ethel loved jewelry, and when they walked around the mall, she said he would ask why she was looking at jewelry when she had so much at home. Her response?
“Bob. I don’t have that, that or that!”
Even though Bob teased Ethel about her shopping habits, jewelry would come in the mail that he had gotten her by surprise.
“He really loved me,” Ethel Holt said. “I know he did.”
Ethel and Bob lived together in the house he bought in 1949. Ethel said it brought Bob joy to cut the grass and do other household chores. When he did rest, he could be found sitting out in their garage, chatting with whoever walked by.
“Everybody loved Bob and Bob loved everybody,” Ethel Holt said. “He turned nobody away. Somebody wanted to talk, he would talk. If they wanted advice, he would give them advice.”
Ethel said she remembers a time when she drove Bob to the post office, and he stayed inside long enough that she went in to check on him. She walked into the post office and then walked right back out.
“There’s three or four of them in there, just carrying on their war stories,” Ethel Holt said. “I know when I go to the post office, just be there a while, cause you never know who’s gonna show up.”
President of Albion’s NAACP chapter Robert Dunklin, who has lived in Albion since 1965, remembers running into Bob Holt at the post office on one of his visits. Robert Dunklin was Holt’s supervisor at the Albion Malleable Iron Company for several years.
“Occasionally, we would meet in the post office and he would tell me ‘Bob, I’m not coming to work tomorrow,’” Robert Dunklin said. “Even in his later years, he would say that to me, in remembrance of things we used to do in the Malleable.”
Robert Dunklin said that Bob, along with his coworkers, “gave me hell” when he first started as their supervisor.
“From that, I grew as a supervisor, because of the knowledge and the way they talked to me,” Robert Dunklin said.
Robert Dunklin remembers the in-ground swimming pool in the Holts’ backyard, which is still there to this day. But not everybody was invited to the pool, he said.
“When I first came here, he invited me to come by and go swimming,” Robert Dunklin said. “I’ll never forget that.”
Mae Ola Dunklin, former director of the Fritz Shurmur Center for Teacher Development and current Albion College Board of Trustees member, remembers Bob Holt from his time as a school crossing guard, a job he worked after retiring from the Malleable Iron Company.
“I think most of the kids looked up to him,” Mae Ola Dunklin said. “He was always able to keep them in line.”
When Mae Ola Dunklin moved to Albion and people introduced her to the community, they always mentioned Bob Holt’s name. Whenever she saw him, he always had a smile on his face, she said.
Robert Dunklin said that Bob Holt’s impact on the community was huge and that the two of them grew close after working together.
“Even though I didn’t grow up in this community, I felt like he had been my neighbor all of my life,” Robert Dunklin said.
Ethel said many community members came together at Bob’s memorial and talked about their memories of him, and many of them mentioned his laugh and friendly nature.
“The best thing about Mr. Holt, he smiled all the time,” Ethel Holt said. “He would laugh before he said anything.”
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