WS Chronicle

Mrs. Thomasina Holmes, known to family and friends as “Aunt Babe,” celebrates her 95th birthday on Friday, Jan. 5. She was born to Mr. Evans and Mrs. Naomi Johnson on Bailey Street in Winston-Salem, which is now known as Old Salem.

She lived with her parents and sister Thelma at 1227 South Main Street as she states without hesitation.

She has many wonderful memories of her of childhood on what was known as “Salem Hill.” One such memory is surviving small pox as a little girl under the care of her grandmother Francis who was a midwife.

Her family moved from Old Salem to the Boston community in 1932. There has been family in Boston since 1903. Her grandfather Charlie Branson owned the neighborhood store on Cherry Street, which is now a garden plot for Kimberley Park Elementary. Some of her best and life changing experiences happened in Boston. She married James Crutchfield Holmes of Boston, where they lived and raised three children, Terry, Roslyn and James “Greg” Gregory. She became a vibrant part of the Boston neighborhood of Glenn Avenue, which is now Pittsburgh Avenue. If you ask her where she attended school, she proudly responds, Kimberley Park Elementary and Atkins High School. It was a tight knit, family oriented neighborhood. If an accident happened, the first response was “go get Ms. Thomasine.” She was the neighborhood nurse. 

She retired from RJ Reynolds with 44 years and six months of service. She is the family historian and has many rich stories and experiences to share. She recalls many of the events of the Depression, World War II, as well as local and world history. She was so excited to be a part of the new millennium and to witness the election of an African- American president, Barak Obama.

Still an avid reader, she can be found sitting in her favorite chair reading the newspaper or any other informational magazine with the dictionary beside her in case there is a new word she hasn’t seen. A year ago she asked for a new dictionary because the one she had was out of date.

When family and friends call, her favorite way to close the conversation is “Let’s keep pushing and praying and thanking God for another day and another journey.”