Wanda N. Bennett Holland

Wanda N. Bennett Holland

 Funeral services for Mrs. Wanda N Bennett Holland, 77, of Kilgore will be held on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. in the Rader Funeral Home Chapel in Kilgore. Burial will follow at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Rusk County. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Monday, July 1, 2024, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.

 Wanda fought a long hard battle with vascular dementia that eventually took her life on June 28, 2024. She lived for 52 years near Lake Cherokee and was born in Oak Hill Community, Rusk County, Texas to Roscoe J. Bennett and Loveta Bridges on August 10, 1946. She was the second of four children from this marriage and grew up on a farm.

 Wanda finished her Senior year of Henderson High School through correspondence while living with her maternal aunt and uncle in Dallas graduating in 1964. Wanda then went to a working business school and learned to be a Computer Key Punch Card Operator. She married Charles W. Holland from Warren City (Gladewater), TX in 1965 which resulted in a son and daughter during this union.

 In November of 1963, Wanda was near Dealey Plaza enjoying the parade for then President John F. Kennedy before the shots rang out and said that if it was not for Secret Service walking by the car that she could have reached out and touched First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her pink dress.

 Wanda worked for Mobil Oil in the computer room at the Pegasus Building in downtown Dallas before moving back to Rusk County and live on inherited family land in 1972 near Lake Cherokee. Once there, she went through a divorce becoming a single mother of two children. She went to work for Bankers Computer Service in downtown Longview on South Fredonia Street across from First Baptist Church where it later moved out to Eastman Road in 1979. Wanda then went to work for Texas Eastman Kodak in the computer room at Building 1 in June 1980 and finished her 26th year career there at Eastman Chemical Company Texas Division retiring in June 2006 in the Purchasing Department.

Wanda started working ceramics as a hobby in the mid 70’s before finding her lifelong commitment of growing potted plants. Many years of watering, repotting, bringing them inside her makeshift greenhouse for winter, and bringing them back out again for summer became a normal routine. Her favorite plant was an Allamanda which is a tropical plant that produces a bright yellow flower that she would often get from the late Jack Price’s personal greenhouse in South Longview. Wanda also enjoyed cooking big meals for her family that would last all week from purple hull peas, lady cream peas, and her homemade cornbread.

 During the 90s, Wanda could be found at Mom’s Biker Bar where she made many friends, enjoyed many parties, and talked it up with Mom herself. Wanda could often be found doing her fast walk routine at the Eastman Pedestrian Trails or on the road in front of her house. In retirement, Wanda enjoyed her wine and transitioned herself away from her potted plants and focused on her grandchildren McKayla and Murray, her son Michael, and his wife Heather. 

 Wanda is survived by her son Michael (Heather) grandchildren McKayla and Murry; her daughter Michelle (Tom) and granddaughter Jacqueline of McKinney, TX, sister Latricia Nichols of Longview, TX, brothers Roscoe Daryll (Gayle) Bennett, Virgil Bennett, and nephew Justin Bennett all of Oak Hill Community, along with many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

 We want to express our sincere gratitude towards Arabella of Kilgore staff, maintenance, cafeteria, and Memory Care for their loving devotion in taking care of Wanda.