Thomas Julius Holmes

HOLMES, GOEHRING, CASSABAUM, WILEY, GIPPLE, GUSS

Posted By: David L. Skipton (email)
Date: 9/20/2009 at 23:59:42

Source-Columbus Gazette

Thomas Julius Holmes, Jr., 95, of Greenville, Illinois, died at the home of his son, David Holmes, in Streator on February 25, 2007.
Funeral services were held March 2 at the Donnell-Wiegand Funeral Home with the Rev. Herbert H. Coates and Rev. James Reinhard officiating. Interment will follow in the Columbus City Cemetery in Iowa.

Mr. Holmes was born April 9, 1911, in Ottumwa, Iowa, the son of Thomas J. and Ida M. (Goehring) Holmes. He married Irene Cassabaum January 28, 1937, in Columbus Junction, Iowa. She preceded him in death on December 16, 1945. He married Lillian M. Cassabaum June 5, 1954, in Wapello, Iowa. She preceded him in death on April 6, 1995.

He is survived by three children, David D. Holmes of Streator; Mrs. Jack (Janet) Wiley of Bonner Springs, Iowa and Phyllis I. Holmes of Sun City West, Ariz; three grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

He was also preceded in death by his parents, and brothers and sisters, Virgil, Presley, Carlton, Oscar and John Holmes and Margaret Gipple and Lola Guss.

Mr. Holmes was reared in East Central Iowa and attended 13 different schools. He was a farm laborer for several years and in 1959 became custodian at Buffington High School. The family moved to Greenville in 1963 where he was custodian at Greenville College until he was 83 years old. He has resided with his son for the past few years. He was a member of the Bond County Senior Citizens Center and the Greenville Free Methodist Church.