Max B. Holt

After 95 years of fascination with life, Max Holt concluded his story on December 17th, 2014, at Hospice House in Olathe, Kansas. Max Holt was born Jan 25, 1919 in a house overlooking Reeds Spring, Missouri. By seven years old Max was riding a horse by himself to Coon Ridge School. During the Depression years, at Abesville High School, he loved to play basketball. That's when players used a two hand set shot and underhand free throws. The rules then required returning the basketball to center court, for a new jump ball, every time either side scored. He graduated from Abesville High School in 1937. In 1940, before the war, he was drafted by the Army and served until 1944. He talked to family of experiencing radio, rockets, satellites and computers. He was astounded and worried about the nuclear bomb that ended the war. He loved Lucy, The Lone Ranger and any western show. Shows like Gun Smoke, Cheyenne and Bonanza held his attention from the 1950's through reruns of a few weeks ago. Over eighty years old, he bought his own computer, researched his family history online, downloaded music and retaught himself keyboarding by writing a history of Stone County and his own 300+ page life story. He often remarked, "I have traveled from horse and buggy to the space age during my lifetime." His father, Jasper Fielden (Buckle) Holt, and mother, Nola (Buchannon) Holt and younger brother, Louis were his early core family. They are gone. Not many of his contemporaries remain. Max loved his younger brother Louis so much. Once, when he was seven, Max came home from school to find his chocolate Easter bunny gift had the ears and head nibbled off. Four year old Louis leaned around the door and suggested, "Mouse ate it." Max doubted it and laughed every time he shared the story. He grew up at the "Old home place" on what was then Railey Creek and now Holt/Woods Road. Max went to a well for water, chopped wood for heat and cooking and hung on every song the Grand Ole Opry played on cold Saturday nights. He picked up the fiddle from his father who taught him Scotch, English, Irish style, some gospel, and old time country and bluegrass. Brother Louis played the guitar, sang and the boys would practice and play off and on for many years. Max played with a band and some on the radio in Kansas City when he moved there in the early 50's and then permanently in the late 50's. In 1957 Max and Louis played a major square dance for hundreds in Marvel cave with Chick Allen playing percussion on the jawbone of a mule. Max never took a drink of alcohol. Toward the end of WWII, after serving in the Aleutian Islands as a mortar specialist and company clerk, he earned an honorable discharge and married Lillian Beatrice Walters from Gurdon, Arkansas. They had two children, Lirel Holt, Olathe, KS, and Norma Faye Holt (Nedderman), Colleyville, TX. Others who mean a great deal to him are his daughter-in -law Sharon, son-in-law, Jeff Nedderman, grandsons Kyle Holt, Bryce Holt, Greg Sandberg, and Wade Nedderman, and beautiful granddaughter Laura Nedderman. Great grandchildren are Noah, Zinesh and Jonah Holt. His favorite granddaughters -in-law are Kim Holt, Amanda Holt, and Becky Sandberg. Two of his most respected friends of all time still reside in Reeds Spring - Imogene Holt (Louis's wife) and Nelson Holt, his childhood friend and first cousin. Max's professional life was varied and interesting. He worked as a metal worker in plants in Detroit after WWII. Returning to Kansas City in 1952 he worked at Benson's Manufacturing, shaping aluminum. He returned to Reeds Spring in 1954 and worked with Louis to help his mother, Nola Holt grow Holt's Variety Store which was just yards from the famous Spring itself. He filled in as a carpenter, then moved his family to Kansas City in 1957, where he worked again in manufacturing, this time in aerospace. He finished his work career for 20 years as a U.S. Postal Carrier in Kansas City. His daily walking and good health attributes kept his body going until now. He helped Lirel start a business and worked with him for a few years after retirement. The business flourished and led to other businesses. Wanting to be with his daughter, Max relocated to Texas and stayed with Faye for over seven years enjoying his youngest grandchildren. When Wade and Laura went to college, he wanted to return to Olathe to be close to his great grandchildren. Max picked up playing music again in his 70's with the band the Waffles (Don and Mim Carlson). Along the way he made furniture by hand, worked on his own car and was a solid, honest person who could be depended on. His family sends him joyfully to find his new birth and new home, praying there is as much fascination for him there as he found in this life. Go with love and our gratefulness, dad. Leave the pain and find the goodness, God's blessings. We are because of you.