Post by Okwes on Jan 29, 2008 17:31:04 GMT -5
Virginia Lorene Holloway held on to tribal roots
She founded Fresno center to benefit Native Americans.
By Jim Steinberg / The Fresno Bee
Virginia Lorene Holloway
Born: Sept. 10, 1933
Died: Dec. 10, 2007
Occupation: Founder and director of Osa Center for Indian Education
Survivors: Daughters Dianne Payne, Patricia Hull and Christine Vercoe; sons James, Jerry and Louis William Grieco
A memorial service will be held Thursday for Virginia Lorene Holloway, who founded and directed the Osa Center for Indian Education in Fresno, which serves Native Americans across the San Joaquin Valley.
Ms. Holloway, 74, died Dec. 10 of a blood disorder. The Osa Center was named for her mother, Osa "Ocie" Blair Holloway.
Ms. Holloway came to Fresno from Cherokee country in Oklahoma.
Her Cherokee and Lenape tribal heritage gave her a feeling for all Native American culture, said her son Jerry Grieco.
The Osa Center sponsored and organized the 29th annual California Indian Education Conference in Fresno in 2006.
Ms. Holloway moved from Tulsa, Okla., to Fresno shortly after graduating from a Tulsa high school, met Louis Grieco and raised their family.
Jerry Grieco said Ms. Holloway took an expansive view of Native Americans' need to improve their education.
About 14,000 Native American children live in the Fresno-Clovis area, he said.
Grieco called his mother a storyteller in the Cherokee tradition who passed on tales that her elders had told her and her elders' elders had told them in an endless chain of spoken history.
"She spent time with children reading and telling stories, Native American tales meant to teach life lessons," Grieco said.
Ms. Holloway also made Indian jewelry. She learned and spoke Cherokee.
In 1991, she introduced Wilma Mankiller, the Cherokee Nation's first female chief, who addressed the San Joaquin Valley Town Hall lecture in Fresno.
Mankiller told her audience that her ancestry was Dutch-Irish on one side, Cherokee on the other. She said the government forced Cherokees from the East Coast to Oklahoma, where Ms. Holloway grew up.
The Osa Center defines its mission as working with the state Department of Education to "provide leadership, assistance, oversight and resources so that every Native American in California has access to an education that meets world-class standards."
Michelle Lira now directs Osa Center, and knew Ms. Holloway well.
"She was a wonderful lady," Lira said. "She loved her heritage, loved being Cherokee. I'm Choinumni. She served all Indians around here. ...
"She earned all Indians' respect, and she earned their trust. ... She lived to educate."
The memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Fresno First Baptist Church, 1400 E. Saginaw Way.
The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6311.
She founded Fresno center to benefit Native Americans.
By Jim Steinberg / The Fresno Bee
Virginia Lorene Holloway
Born: Sept. 10, 1933
Died: Dec. 10, 2007
Occupation: Founder and director of Osa Center for Indian Education
Survivors: Daughters Dianne Payne, Patricia Hull and Christine Vercoe; sons James, Jerry and Louis William Grieco
A memorial service will be held Thursday for Virginia Lorene Holloway, who founded and directed the Osa Center for Indian Education in Fresno, which serves Native Americans across the San Joaquin Valley.
Ms. Holloway, 74, died Dec. 10 of a blood disorder. The Osa Center was named for her mother, Osa "Ocie" Blair Holloway.
Ms. Holloway came to Fresno from Cherokee country in Oklahoma.
Her Cherokee and Lenape tribal heritage gave her a feeling for all Native American culture, said her son Jerry Grieco.
The Osa Center sponsored and organized the 29th annual California Indian Education Conference in Fresno in 2006.
Ms. Holloway moved from Tulsa, Okla., to Fresno shortly after graduating from a Tulsa high school, met Louis Grieco and raised their family.
Jerry Grieco said Ms. Holloway took an expansive view of Native Americans' need to improve their education.
About 14,000 Native American children live in the Fresno-Clovis area, he said.
Grieco called his mother a storyteller in the Cherokee tradition who passed on tales that her elders had told her and her elders' elders had told them in an endless chain of spoken history.
"She spent time with children reading and telling stories, Native American tales meant to teach life lessons," Grieco said.
Ms. Holloway also made Indian jewelry. She learned and spoke Cherokee.
In 1991, she introduced Wilma Mankiller, the Cherokee Nation's first female chief, who addressed the San Joaquin Valley Town Hall lecture in Fresno.
Mankiller told her audience that her ancestry was Dutch-Irish on one side, Cherokee on the other. She said the government forced Cherokees from the East Coast to Oklahoma, where Ms. Holloway grew up.
The Osa Center defines its mission as working with the state Department of Education to "provide leadership, assistance, oversight and resources so that every Native American in California has access to an education that meets world-class standards."
Michelle Lira now directs Osa Center, and knew Ms. Holloway well.
"She was a wonderful lady," Lira said. "She loved her heritage, loved being Cherokee. I'm Choinumni. She served all Indians around here. ...
"She earned all Indians' respect, and she earned their trust. ... She lived to educate."
The memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Fresno First Baptist Church, 1400 E. Saginaw Way.
The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6311.