Margaret Hollis Obituary

Margaret Campbell Belser Hollis COLUMBIA, SC - Margaret Campbell Belser Hollis, born on October 28, 1924, died peacefully at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community on Friday, January 23, 2015 after a long illness. Known affectionately as Peggy to her many family members and friends through the State of South Carolina and nationwide, she will be remembered for her accomplishments and her contributions to her church and to her community's understanding and appreciation for the history of the State and the nation. Peggy Hollis was married for 45 years to Daniel Walker Hollis, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and author of the definitive history of the University of South Carolina from its origin in 1801 to the early 1950s. She was the daughter of Col. Irvine Furman Belser and Mary Campbell Heyward Belser, and the granddaughter of Duncan Clinch Heyward, governor of the State of South Carolina from 1902-1906. One of her parents' eight children, she is survived by her sister Harriet (Baba) Haynsworth Belser Deas of Boca Raton, Florida, and her good friend and sister-in-law, Shelvie Belser -Tarrant. She was predeceased by her brothers Irvine Furman Belser, Jr. and Duncan Clinch Heyward Belser and four sisters, May Heyward Belser Douglass, Anne Gordon Belser Boas, Katherine Bayard Belser Barnhart, and Mildred Barnwell Belser Holmes, and her loving step-mother, Caroline Dick McKissick Belser. She had been the keeper of the family traditions and connections for many years, a role in which she excelled. Following World War II and living at her childhood home "Mayfields" at 3913 Kilbourne Road in Columbia, she helped her father with his book Life is a Glorious Adventure (1968). Mrs. Hollis served from 1970-1985 as a Vice Regent for South Carolina to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, founded by native South Carolinian Ann Pamela Cunningham. In 1985 she was elected Vice Regent Emerita. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association is the organization of volunteers widely credited with saving and preserving the Virginia home of George Washington, our nation's Revolutionary War military commander-in-chief and its first president. She was also a member of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina, serving as the Columbia Committee Chairman in 1989-1991. Mrs. Hollis was the author or editor of several scholarly books about the history of her native State of South Carolina and the role of her maternal family therein. South Carolina Portraits is a representative collection of portraits painted before 1914, mostly of South Carolinians; others feature subjects who are not South Carolinians but whose descendants have brought their portraits here. This exhaustive collection of portraits was edited by Christie Zimmerman Fant, Margaret Belser Hollis, and Virginia Gurley Meynard. Twilight on the South Carolina Rice Fields: Letters of the Heyward Family 1862-1871, edited by Margaret Belser Hollis and Allen H. Stokes, is a collection of revealing wartime and postbellum letters and documents of Edward Barnwell Heyward (Barney), great-grandfather of Peggy Hollis. The correspondence reveals the challenges faced by a once-successful rice planting industry and a once-opulent society in the throes of monumental change. In her book My Mother Was A Heyward, Mrs. Hollis tells the story of the Clinch Heyward family of South Carolina. It is an "attempt to trace the Heyward family from the earliest known member in this country (1670) to the present day, concentrating on the Clinch Heyward line of descent." Mrs. Hollis was graduated cum laude from The University of South Carolina and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She was a graduate of Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California. For several years she was the director of Christian Education at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. She returned to her home church, Trinity Church in Columbia, and for several years served as head of its Christian Education program, until her retirement from church staff work. She continued to serve the church, now Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, as a member of the Vestry, as a docent, and in other ways. For many years Mrs. Hollis worked with Bollin Real Estate, now Bollin Ligon Walker. As an active and contributing member of the community, Mrs. Hollis served as president of The Columbia Garden Club (1976-1977). During the 1980s she was very instrumental and insistent in having the Columbia Garden Club take a proactive approach to the work to complete a historically accurate design for the restoration of the Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home gardens after years of neglect. For her work, she was honored to have the yearbook dedicated to her (1984) and in 1995 became an Honorary Life member of the Club. She was a member of The Junior League of Columbia, Inc., The Columbia Ball, Forest Lake Club, and The Quadrille. A service to celebrate a life well lived in honor of Mrs. Hollis will be held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 4:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions may be made to the Trinity Foundation, 1100 Sumter Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29201 or to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association c/o George Washington's Mt. Vernon, Development Office, PO Box 240, Mt. Vernon, Virginia 22121. The family would like to acknowledge the special care of Zenora Lott, Pam Nero, and Conetra Johnson. Please sign the online guestbook at www.dunbarfunerals.com. Visit our guestbook at www.legacy.com/obituaries/ charleston