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.

In 1935 McNeely accepted a position in Navasota, Texas, as Band Director. During World War II he worked from 1942-45 as an inspector for the Naval Inspection Service in Houston. He later returned to Navasota, where in 1947 he was appointed Director and Supervisor of Music in the Navasota Public Schools, and his reputation began to grow as the city’s bands won high ratings in state competitions. During this period McNeely also devoted several summers to the completion of a Master’s degree in Music from the University of Michigan.

McNeely came to Houston in 1948 as Director of Instrumental Music at Jefferson Davis High School, where (in addition to directing the concert and marching bands) he developed a stage band that earned top honors in state competitions. In 1951 he was appointed Director of the Rice Owl Band and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1967. He had meanwhile continued his work at Jefferson Davis High School and retired from that position in 1970. He died in Houston on November 4, 1984, after a long illness.

[Compiled from family records and excerpted in part from The Owl Band of Rice University, c. 1965]

From the guide to the Holmes McNeely Papers MS 68., c. 1948-67, (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX)