Eddie Holmes is a recipient of the Jefferson Award.Eddie Holmes is just as kind at home as he is in public, says someone who’s known him for more than four decades.
“He’s always been a compassionate, intelligent person. Even in high school he was very articulate, very smart, and everybody loved him,” said Fannie Holmes, his wife of 41 years.
She nominated the local community leader, deacon, husband and father for this month’s Jefferson Award.
“I don’t have a full-time job. That’s the point,” Holmes said. “It’s all about priorities in my life and my wife is my No. 1 priority. The second is my daughter, and beyond that everything sort of falls in line.”
The 64-year-old retired TVA employee is chairman of the board of the Chattanooga Housing Authority, a deacon at New United Missionary Baptist Church and the former local NAACP president. He also mentors several local young professionals.
His only child is his adult daughter, Coretta Holmes, but he sits in the audience watching young people perform at school functions when their dads cannot attend, said Fannie Holmes.
ABOUT THE AWARDSThe Jefferson Awards were restarted locally in May by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, WRCB-TV and First Tennessee Bank. In March, a local committee will select five honorees whose stories will be submitted to award officials in Washington, D.C. One award winner will be chosen to represent Chattanooga in the nation’s capital for the national Jefferson Awards banquet. Since 1972, the awards have been presented on the local and national levels. Each year a national winner is selected in four categories: elected or public officials, private citizens, people benefiting the disadvantaged and individuals 35 or younger.
And Eddie Holmes’ life isn’t a storybook fantasy, she said. His mother gave him up at an early age to be raised by his aunt.
“I think him not having a father figure, he felt if he ever became a father that he wanted to be the best father,” she said. “He wanted to be there and show love and care.”
Holmes said he enjoys his life, so taking care of his family and serving in his community is not hard.
His routine includes making sure his wife gets to therapy three times a week for her back pain. Then he cares for his daughter, who has multiple sclerosis. The illness limits her ability to drive, sometimes causes excruciating pain and has caused her temporarily to lose her sight, Fannie Holmes said.
Assisting low-income housing residents is his passion, said Holmes, who volunteers as the CHA board chairman. He also enjoys being a role model and sounding board to youth at his church, he said, and supporting parents who seek his advice when their children are in danger of being suspended at school.
And he still gets calls from people who knew him as the local NAACP president and seek his guidance for handling employment and education issues.
Fannie Holmes describes her husband as a man who will fight for anybody, but he said he’s just fulfilling his destiny.
“People say, ‘How do you do this?'” he said. “I just enjoy what I do. I think it’s a part of my calling.”