- Date Of Birth: June 30, 1915
- Date Of Death: November 23, 2018
- State: Colorado
Nora Jane Neely Holliday was born June 30, 1915 in Springfield, MO the fifth child born to Harry and Lela Hogan. In 1918 her family moved to Denver; siblings: Frances Louise, Harold Edward, Elizabeth, Harvey Thomas and George Chalmers (all deceased). Joining the family was her maternal grandmother Janie Priscilla Mahalia Hancock Hogan and her teenaged son and daughter Udell and Alice. Mrs. Holliday’s mother Lela and an aunt died the same week in 1920 from the Spanish flu pandemic. Following her mother’s death, she and her siblings were raised by their grandmother a domestic worker and father a railroad chef for the Union Pacific Railroad.
Mrs. Holliday was educated in Denver Public Schools – Whittier Elementary, Cole Jr. High and Manual High School (class of 1933). She was the 1933 prom queen for the African-American students. Upon graduation, she received a scholarship from the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs to attend Colorado College in Colorado Springs but following the death of her grandmother, she transferred to Colorado State Teachers’ College (now the University of Northern Colorado) in Greely earning a B.A. in education in 1937. She was employed at the American Woodman Fraternal Organization prior to accepting the position of head teacher at the George Washington Carver Day Nursery serving from 1950 – 1955 while her daughters were small.