Naperville poet remembered as talented 'Southern belle'

With Southern charm and an amazing mastery of language, Naperville's Glenna Holloway lived a life of graceful expression, those who knew her say.

The longtime Naperville resident, a frequently-published poet and writer, died Sept. 4. She was 87.

Born in Tennessee, Glenna Rose (Preston) Holloway lived for more than 40 years in Naperville, but never lost the mannerisms of her Southern roots, said Don Niswonger, parish pastor at Grace United Methodist Church, where Glenna was a faithful participant.

"She was raised in the culture of a Southern belle and she was just exactly that," Niswonger said. "She was always a lady, always gracious, always dressed immaculately with a welcoming attitude toward everyone."

Glenna excelled in the arts and found joy in painting, photography and making jewelry, Niswonger said. But her true calling was her writing - specifically poetry.

"I don't know how she ever found enough time or how she ever discovered so many words," Niswonger said. "She had an incomparable knowledge of the English language."

Julie Cunningham, president of the Naperville Woman's Club, said Glenna wrote a poem called "Winter Seed" about the club's origins in 1997 when the group was celebrating its 100th anniversary. Glenna, who joined the club in 1974, already was noted for her writing style and her kind, ladylike personality when she penned the poem, which starts with this stanza:

"There were 19 of them, second and third generation pioneers, wives of the young city's fathers, weaving their strong social fabric while dragging long wool skirts and petticoats through sleet and mud, meeting in a cold room, shivering on rickety chairs. Determined."

In 2006, Niswonger said the city of Naperville asked Glenna to write lyrics to a theme song for its 175th anniversary celebration. Three years later, her first and only book, "Never Far From Water and Other Love Stories," was published.

Those accomplishments came years after she became founding president of the Illinois State Poetry Society in 1991. Her biography on the organization's website lists several of the more than 300 magazines and journals in which her writing has appeared: North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame, The Formalist, Georgia Review, Saturday Evening Post, America, Gray's Sporting Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Christian Century and The Lyric.

Glenna also did freelance writing for newspapers including the Daily Herald, Naperville Sun, Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.

Susan T. Moss, president of the Illinois State Poetry Society, said that group and another of which Glenna was a member, the Poets Club of Chicago, sometimes would meet at the Naperville woman's home.

Of all the poems in Glenna's life, a series she wrote in 2003 about the Wright brothers to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their famous first flight stood out as Glenna's favorite, Niswonger said. She traveled to the Outer Banks and dunes of North Carolina where the flight took place to experience the site and bring her impressions into her writing.

She also enjoyed traveling in Far Eastern countries, as she was enamored with Chinese and Japanese art, Niswonger said. Moss said some of Glenna's poems even were translated into Chinese and published in China and Taiwan.

When she traveled to those destinations or others with her husband, Robert Wesley Holloway, Niswonger said they would collect semiprecious gemstones for her to fashion into artistic forms of jewelry.

Glenna had very little family, especially after her husband died in 1997. She was an only child, as was her mother. So in 2005, Niswonger said Glenna asked him and his wife to be the executors of her estate.

"I was honored that she asked me to do so," Niswonger said. "We really became her adopted family."

A visitation for Glenna is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at Grace United Methodist Church, 300 E. Gartner Road, Naperville, with a memorial service to follow at 2 p.m. at the church.

Donations may be made to the Glenna Holloway Memorial Fund at Grace United Methodist Church.