I just lost my wife of 56 years, Polly Garman Holmes, to pancreatic cancer. I’ve had time this week to reflect on Polly’s life and long list of achievements. As I look back on those decades, I am in awe of the unusual woman I married.

When I first saw Polly during our college years, she was on a Harley Chopper. You might say I married a biker-babe. We hit it off during our college days, and she started a series of “firsts” for females.

She followed me as the first female station manager of the college radio station in Sacramento.

My favorite photograph of her is of her being presented the top-eliminator trophy at Fremont Drag Strip in 1969 by the CEO of American Motors. Yeah, she was a fast woman. That reputation got her a job as the first counter woman in a speed shop. I dropped by her shop on the way home from work one day just to watch her work. A man came in and looked around. All he saw was some dumb blonde behind the counter. Polly said, “May I help you.” He told her that he had come in to get a new carburetor. She asked what he was running? He said, “a small-block Chevy.” She asked if it had a high-rise or a stock manifold? He said, “high-rise.” She asked whether he had a full-race or a stock cam? He said, “stock.” She then recommended a 650 double-pumper Holley. He just stared at her. About that time, the owner of the shop came in from the back. He asked the man all the same questions and followed with the same recommendation for the 650. He just stood there and stared at Polly. Women weren’t supposed know about that stuff back then.

It was the same scenario when she became the first woman to manage a racetrack. When you went to the track, you got a race program. When you opened it, there was a picture of Polly with the caption, “Our Girl Friday.” Man, she had fun on race weekends.

I am a lucky man because we also worked great together. She was left-handed, and I was right-handed. During our drag racing days, we would often need to change out a clutch plate. She went under the passenger side, and I went under the driver side where each of us could work with our strongest arm to take the bolts off the bellhousing to drop the transmission, then put in the new clutch plate. In a couple of hours, we were back in the house watching television.

The “firsts” kept coming with her becoming the first woman in Nevada to be certified Firefighter 1 & 2 and EMT. One night the “pros” came down from Reno to our rural station to make sure some woman didn’t break into that elite all-male organization. I have a series of pictures of them putting her through the paces. At first, she was instructed to lay a 2.5” hose line from the pumper trucker to a two-story building while wearing full equipment including an air-pack. That done, they instructed her to ladder the building to the roof. She accomplished that. Then they sent three men up on the roof. She was told there was an injured man on the roof, and she had to bring him down safely. They knew for sure that she couldn’t do that. Two of the guys lifted a 170-pound man over the top of the ladder into her arms, and she carefully brought him down and placed him safely on the ground.

It didn’t end there. Nevada law said that any fireman or policeman could order any able-bodied man to help on a wild-land fire where the job was to clear a big section of bare ground to stop the sagebrush from burning. She went before the legislature and testified. The issue: Why would they turn her away just because she wore a skirt? The Nevada law now says any able-bodied person can be put on a fire-line. Today, 50% of the wild-land firefighters in Nevada are women. Yes, Polly was the first. That initiative got her on the front page of the local newspaper. Polly was so shy.

Polly may be the only woman in the Country who has written a regular column in a diesel truck magazine for 30 years. Her column is entitled, “Polly’s Pickup,” and it runs in the Turbo Diesel Register magazine. In 2006, the Editor asked her to write a story about why a woman would want to have a diesel-powered truck. She accepted the challenge, and titled her story, “Diesels for Damsels.” It, too, was a hit. Two local technical schools requested permission to use this article as part of their course materials because of her excellent description of how a turbocharger functions on a diesel engine. And she has written for other automotive magazines throughout the years.

As time went on, she developed other interests. For example, she started raising top-notch Angora Goats. In typical Polly fashion, her goats won all five categories at the Texas State Fair. She was often asked to put on public demonstrations of the old-fashioned methods of spinning and weaving wool and mohair. And she was a realtor and owned her own agency in Nevada. At her passing, she was registered as a property manager and was the associate real-estate broker for a local agency in Texas.

But, perhaps most important, she was a “mom.” She raised two children (sisters) from Hong Kong at a time when international adoptions were not common. How this came to be is a story unto itself. But, it is one with a happy ending. Both of our “daughters” graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno. And they gave us three wonderful “granddaughters.” Polly lived long enough to see each of her “granddaughters” graduate from college, a point of pride for Polly, the “mom.”

Just your basic housewife.
I sure miss her.

John Holmes
Husband