McNeely, Holmes

Marion Holmes McNeely (known as Holmes McNeely) was born December 4, 1907, in Milford, Texas, the only son among four children born to Marion McNeely and Mary Ella Suggs. He attended the public schools in Memphis, Texas, where his father was the local dentist. Family members attribute his musical talent to his mother’s family; it was his mother who gave him his first music lessons on the piano, and beginning in his early teens he played trumpet in the Memphis regimental band, participating frequently in band contests around the state. He also had considerable artistic ability and in later years enjoyed painting scenes remembered from his Colorado summer home.

McNeely received a B.A. degree from Hardin-Simmons University during the period of the Great Depression; he then went to Falfurrias, Texas, to accept a teaching position in the public schools, where he directed the marching and concert bands and also organized one of the first mounted bands in the state for both parade and rodeo activities. While in Falfurrias he met his future wife, Carol Virginia Turner; they were married July 10, 1934, and had one son, Robert Holmes McNeely.

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