Grace Bryan Holmes

Grace Bryan Holmes, 98, of Decatur, Georgia, died Friday, April 21, 2017. Born April 9, 1919, in Riddleville, Georgia, she was the daughter of the late Gainer E. Bryan and Lila Smith Bryan. She moved to Atlanta in 1966 with her husband, Rev. Thomas J. Holmes, Sr., and continued to reside in Decatur after her husband's death in 1985. Grace was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, teacher, pianist for church services, gifted writer and recognized poet who, with her husband, was a significant figure in combating racial injustice among Southern Baptists as they supported racial integration of Mercer University in the 1960s.

She graduated from Sandersville High School in Sandersville, Georgia, at the age of 16, and from Bessie Tift College, in Forsyth, Georgia, at the age of 20. In 1940, she married Rev. Thomas J. Holmes, Sr. and they had two children: Katherine Holmes Benson and Thomas J. Holmes, Jr. She was a pastor's wife for 44 years.

In a tribute to her husband, Grace described her own qualities as she summarized their married life:
"I knew and loved Tom from the time he was a winsome youth of sixteen and treasurer of our tenth-grade class. I heard him preach his first sermon at nineteen, entitled "Ye are the Salt of the Earth; the Light of the World." The night he was ordained, I heard him sing:

I would be true, for there are those who trust me;

I would be pure, for there are those who care;

I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;

I would be brave, for there is much to dare.

During our marriage of forty-four years, I was often astonished at his strength, courage, and consecration. In all, I knew him fifty years. Together we experienced eight pastorates of Southern Baptist churches, twenty-two interim pastorates, and twenty years in service to Mercer University."

Rev. Holmes was fired as pastor of Tattnall Square Baptist Church in Macon, for refusing to block attendance by a student from Africa who was the first black student admitted to Mercer University. In the book, Ashes for Breakfast: Diary of Racism in an American Church (Judson Press, 1969), Rev. Holmes described their experience and included sections written by Grace from the perspective of a wife who shared those events. Grace continued the fight against racial prejudice in her autobiographical book Time to Reconcile: The Odyssey of a Southern Baptist (University of Georgia Press, 2000).

Grace was a brave survivor of breast cancer whose personal challenges included the sudden loss of her husband in January 1985, and of her son in May 1993. In May 1990, she transcribed devotions her husband had recorded for Central Baptist Church in Newnan, Ga in 1984 in the unpublished manuscript "Devotions on Prayer" and wrote a personal tribute "Tom Holmes Remembered" at the same time.

In 2000, she completed the unpublished manuscript Good-bye Sweet Prince, a diary of events around her husband's death and her struggle to find meaning in a new stage of life.

Over several years, Grace's award-winning poetry was published in Atlanta Magazine, Decision, Scimitar and Song, and Home Life. She collected all her poetry in the unpublished manuscript A High Wind Blowing (Songs of Life) in 2001.

Three grandchildren were subjects of memorable poems: "Glad Reunion – to Hannah," "To a Newborn Baby (Hannah Holmes," "To a Newborn Baby (Rachel Grace-Nell)," "Rocking with Rachel," and "Matthew."
Grace concluded her 1990 tribute to her husband by referring to the song she heard him sing at his ordination.

From personal experience, I can say that the man I knew through a ministry of fifty years lived out the meaning of the hymn he sang at ordination. He was true, pure, strong, brave, friend, giving, humble, and prayerful – all the qualities mentioned in that hymn.

Those who knew Grace Bryan Holmes recognized the same qualities in her, adding to them her persistence in love and commitment to others throughout her life.
Grace Holmes is survived by: daughter Katherine Holmes Benson (and her husband William Benson, Rome, Ga.); grandchildren Hannah Holmes Harris (and her husband Dana Harris, Avondale Estates, Ga.), Rachel Simmons Glover (and her husband Richard Glover, Oakwood, Ga.), and Matthew Bryan Simmons (and his wife Carrie Brainerd Simmons, Altoona, Fl.); and great-grandchildren Aaron Harris, Elizabeth Rose Harris, Brett Glover, Caeden Simmons, and Kimberly Grace Glover. Other surviving close family include Mary Anna Bryan (Lawrenceville, Ga.), widow of Gainer E. Bryan, Jr., the brother of Grace Holmes, and her children Anna Cropley, Sarah Spicher, William Gainer Bryan, and John Bryan.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 29, at A.S. Turner & Sons, 2773 N. Decatur Road, Decatur, GA 30033. Visitation will begin at 11:00 am followed by a service at 1:00 pm. The remains will be interred in Sandersville, GA, next to her husband, at a later date.

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