Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web ! - Owen Holmes

Just received an email from Carter&Holmes about the death of one of the founders, Owen Holmes.

Owen Holmes, my father and the co-founder of Carter & Holmes Orchids, who was 90 years old, died Thursday afternoon at 7 PM. He had fallen and broken his left hip a couple of weeks earlier while pushing my mother in her wheelchair. He died of complications from that injury and from the bladder cancer that he had been battling for some time.

Funeral services will be held at 3:00 PM Sunday in the Wiles Chapel on the Newberry College Campus conducted by the Rev. Jimmy Counts. Interment will follow in the Ebenezer UMC Cemetery.

My father was blessed with a long life and family and friends that he treasured. He was a WW II veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in the Pacific Theatre and in China. Owen finished Newberry College after being released from active duty. While in school, he joined W.C. Carter in several businesses including Carter & Holmes Orchids.

Owen was a member of Ebenezer United Methodist Church. He loved Ebenezer and the people who came home to worship and praise God and Jesus Christ. He served in most of the positions of the church and also served on various posts with the S.C. Methodist Church.

He helped form the S.C. Orchid Society and served as president of the Hartford Grange, the Newberry Historical Society, and The Rotary Club of Newberry. He served as a Trustee of Newberry College for many years and also chaired the Newberry County Planning Commission and the Newberry Community Hall Commission.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Raye; his son Owen M. “Mac” Holmes, IV and Mac's wife, Kathryn E. Brooker; a number of cousins, including Joe Summer and his wife, Marianna and his daughter, Rebecca; and many treasured friends. He was predeceased by his parents and his cousin and business partner, W.C. “Bill” Carter.

Thank you so much for your prayers and well wishes in this difficult time.

Mac Holmes