Holley Midgley’s Legacy Is One of Leadership and Profound Pride in Community

To think of someone with a deep love for Mentone, it’s easy to think of Holley Midgley. Holley unexpectedly passed away at his Moon Lake home on Sept. 11, 2024, at 76 years of age. He left a significant mark on the Mentone community.

Charles “Holley” Midgley, Jr. • March 28, 1948 — September 11, 2024
(Photo courtesy of Cynthia Stinson)

His love for reading made him a dedicated advocate for Moon Lake Library. Chances are strong that if you ever bought a book at the library’s book sale during one of Mentone’s festivals, you met Holley. He was chairman of the board for Moon Lake Community Library, the subsequent Moon Lake Municipal Library, and Friends of Moon Lake Library. He also served as a board member for the former Mentone Area Arts Council, Little River Arts Council, and the former Mentone Area Preservation Association.

Holley was primarily raised in Gadsden and attended The University of Alabama, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in broadcasting. After college, he moved to Montgomery and found work in marketing and communications. He was a producer/director at Alabama Public Television; chief of cinematography for the Alabama Forestry Commission; director of broadcast relations at Alabama Farm Bureau; and director of public relations for the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. Most of his career was enjoyed serving as executive vice president at the Alabama Academy of Family Physicians.

The Midgley family has had a presence in Mentone since 1945, when Holley’s maternal grandparents purchased the property surrounding Moon Lake from Martha Berry, founder of Berry College. Holley liked to recall with a grin, “My first visit to Mentone was as a fetus in my mother’s belly.”

He was deeply influenced by his mother, Jeanne Shepard Vance, who taught high school English for 17 years. She also taught ballroom dancing for Arthur Murray’s Dance Studios and insisted Holley take lessons.

His father, Charles Holley Midgley, was a bombardier/navigator in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. His B-24 Liberator bomber was shot down over Italy in July 1943. For the following 22 months, he was confined in a German prisoner of war camp and then liberated by U.S. Gen. George Patton’s Third Army. (The same camp was immortalized by the book and movie, “The Great Escape.”) With pride, Holley participated in Gadsden’s “A Walk Through Time” annual event at Forest Cemetary, where his father and other ancestors are buried. He dressed and performed as if he were his father, telling visitors about his life. He accompanied his father for many years to reunions of WWII veterans around the country.

Holley retired to Mentone on April 1, 2008. While still in Montgomery, he had created a newspaper, “The Lookout View,” which featured articles and color photographs showcasing Lookout Mountain. After his move to Mentone, his commitment did not wane and he drove to the printer in Montgomery each month to load papers onto a trailer to bring back to Mentone for distribution in the region.

He was enormously proud of the comfortable Little River log home he built at the Moon Lake property. Martha Berry’s original couch sits prominently in its living room. Her Moon Lake summer home is now owned by Holley’s brother Shep.

Holley portrays his father at the “A Look Back in Time” event at Forrest Cemetery in Gadsden. (Photo courtesy of Ginger Beshears)

Holley began expressing his musical talent in high school, when he played drums and sang in a band he formed called “The Concussions.” He and Shep formed a band at The University of Alabama, “Buffalo Rock,” which toured through the Southeast for three years. Later on, he played guitar and often entertained at friends’ homes. He had a penchant for The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the music that came out of Muscle Shoals during its heyday.

He was an avid Alabama football fan, known to sometimes rewatch old games again and again. Saturday afternoons in the fall were sacred days for Holley.

He had a deep love for history (especially the Civil War era) and archaeology. Being something of a wordsmith, he enjoyed occasionally writing “Groundhog” articles pertaining to area history.

To commemorate Alabama’s bicentennial in 2019, Holley was supported by a committee of local residents as he produced and narrated the film, “Mentone: Where Little River Runs.” The impressive 90-minute documentary features Mentone and its history; it is available for viewing on YouTube. Many hands were involved in the project, but none more so than Holley’s. In essence, it is his love letter to Mentone.

Holley enjoyed a wide social circle and was part of a group of men who have met weekly for many years to enjoy breakfast together. He lovingly referred to the group as the “yack pack.” He was a regular attendee of most events happening in town, from concerts to art shows to council meetings. He planned to run for a position on Mentone’s town council in 2025.

His love for nature was a constant. He kept a daily log of precipitation measurements. Each spring, he kept an ear out for the Wood Thrush, one of the area’s first migratory songbirds. He was a loyal visitor to “The Pocket” at the Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail on Georgia’s Pigeon Mountain, often traveling many times during each spring season to enjoy the bloom cycles of the ephemeral wildflowers. His visits there went back to his days as a teenager, when he enjoyed camping above the waterfalls.

He docked a pontoon boat on the Little River bank of his property and often invited guests, both friend and stranger, on boat rides to DeSoto Falls and back dozens of times a year. In his later years, Holley bought larger pontoons and boated on some of the South’s biggest rivers, including the Tennessee, the Tombigbee, and the Alabama.

He had also become an avid bicyclist in recent years. He devoted one day each week to take his bicycle to the Chickamauga Battlefield in northwest Georgia, where he rode around the expansive park, always finding a place by the creek to sit and read a book.

Holley’s mindset was captured well by a friend: “What adventure is next?” As he is now on to a new adventure, Mentone has lost one of its greatest advocates.

All Are Invited to “Holleyday”  Holley’s life and contributions will be celebrated at “Holleyday” on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m. at DeSoto State Park’s restaurant. Everyone is invited to attend and reminisce with others whose lives were touched by Holley’s humor, generosity, philanthropy, and friendship. Given his love for Alabama football, wear something crimson and white, if you like.

Holley is survived by his son, Charles “Chas” Holley Midgley IV, and granddaughter, Carter Holley Midgley, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, as well as his younger brother, Charles Shepard “Shep” Midgley, with whom he had a particularly close relationship; the two spoke nearly every day.

Donations in memory of Holley may be made by check to Moon Lake Library, P. O. Box 481, Mentone, AL 35984, or on the “Support” page at moonlakelibrary.org.