Mount Holly Cemetery Association – Mount Holly Cemetery

Only thirty years after its 1843 dedication, Mount Holly Cemetery lay in disrepair. A group of prominent Little Rock businessmen formed a cemetery commission in 1877 in an effort to commit better resources to the maintenance and operation of the cemetery. The Mount Holly Cemetery Commission cleaned up the grounds and imposed order, but its efforts were short-lived. By 1914 the cemetery was once again nearly derelict.

Several Little Rock women – including the wives of the successors to that original association – took umbrage at the state of the cemetery and demanded that the men turn it over to them. Within just a few years they had raised funds, restored the cemetery grounds, and built the large mausoleum in the northwest corner of the property.

2012 Mount Holly Cemetery Association Members – Standing, left to right: Susan Borné, Betty Terry, Sissy Clinton, Robin Orsi, Gladys Shackelford, Nancy Phillips, Carolynn Coleman, Frances Cranford, Janis Thibault, Anne Orsi. Seated (center) left to right: Mary Hodges, Marjem Gill, Tricia Cromwell, Trudie Cromwell, Sue Campbell. Seated (front) left to right: Mary Fletcher Worthen, Matilda Buchanan, Elise Sigler, Mary Sue Jacobs, Marianne Ligon, Martha Sowell.

The women’s Mount Holly Cemetery Association still operates the cemetery and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2015.

The Association members give generously of their time, talents, and money to preserve, maintain, improve, and promote the special place that is Mount Holly Cemetery. From fundraising to arranging for major repairs, Association members make sure Mount Holly remains a showplace to make Little Rock and Arkansas proud.

Mount Holly’s sexton, Steve Adams, is its lifeblood. For more than twenty years he has tended every plant, cared for every monument, and overseen every interment. With the help of his landscape crew and volunteers from the Master Gardeners of Pulaski County, he maintains this oasis of history and beauty in the heart of the city and often seems to know the “residents” personally.

Current Association Members:
Judy Goss, President
Sarah Hopkins, Vice President
Anne Orsi, Secretary
Rachel Worthen, Treasurer
Kay Tatum, Archivist

Katharine Allen Adams
Alice Cockrill Allred
Susan Terry Borné
Matilda Wynne Buchanan
Sissy Clinton
Louise Rice Fox
Judy Goss
Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton
Vicky Kessel
Jane Parkin Saunders McMullin
Lisa Jacobs Moriconi
Nancy Phillips
Allison Dyke Pickell
Ellison Poe
Elise Siegler
Janis Parham Thibault
Stephanie Haught Wade
Rachel Worthen

Emerita Association Members:
Sue Campbell
Carolynn Conway Coleman
Frances Cranford
Tricia Cromwell
Trudie Cromwell
Marjem Gill
Mary Hodges
Marianne Ligon
Nancy Nixon McDonough
Sheila Mehaffy
Robin Nichols Orsi
Martha Sowell
Betty Terry
Gladys Whitney
Kathy Worthen