Judy Holmes

Judy Louise Holmes, of Hopper, AR., unexpectedly passed away on Friday, November 27, 2020 at the age of 71. She is survived by her husband of 36 years Gary Holmes, son Chris Runyan and his wife Leila of Rogers, AR, daughter Tabitha Runyan of Bryant, AR and step-son Greg Holmes of Benton, AR. Grandchildren include Rhett, Luke and Delilah Runyan; Dean and Gavin Cunningham; Dustin and his wife Marly Holmes; Austin Holmes; and Haley and Presley Holmes. She is also the great-grandmother of 8.

Born on June 26, 1949 to Alton and Mable Bean, she was raised in Amity, AR.
Judy received a Bachelor of Education degree from Henderson State University in 1971. Her varied career included being a teacher at the Little Rock School District, bookkeeper for Alton Bean Trucking, part-time welder’s assistant at Holmes Welding as well as an entrepreneur. She was the owner and operator of Judy's Place, a women's clothing store in downtown Benton; The Dairy Parlor, a Glenwood restaurant and Pink-n-Shears, a hair salon in Glenwood where she spent the majority of her career.

She helped start Grace Baptist Church in Glenwood, served as treasurer, and remained active until the night the Lord called her home.

Judy loved being on the go, has traveled to 49 states, loved the outdoors, and never passed up a chance to capture a good sunset, mountain, deer, or waterfall with her camera.

She was rarely seen without her husband whether they were working, running errands, visiting friends and family, fishing, hiking or just "riding around." And if you asked Judy about her grandkids, she will be sure to whip out her phone and show you their latest photos.

Judy was a hardworking, sweet, smart, creative, and loving wife, mom, grandmother, daughter and friend who will be missed greatly.

She is preceded in death by her parents and her brothers Gary and Kenny Bean of Amity and step-son Jeffery Holmes of Benton.

I hope everyone had a chance to see some of the photos that were up of my mom and her life. If not, the slide show is available here to view on the tab, Tribute Wall.

The reason these photos are so important to us is because my mom lived behind the camera (and, as you can see, sometimes in front of it).

She told her life through photos and I’m so thankful she lived her life this way because she has given us the greatest gift even in her death. Her memories.

I’m not kidding when I say she probably has thousands of thousands of photos that she taken, printed and saved, BOTH in photo albums and backed up digitally on a hard drive AND saved in the cloud. She was amazing at capturing and preserving these memories. These photos not only told the story of her life and her adventures but also told us what was important to her, what she wanted to to remember.

Another thing i learned the last few days is she kept everything. If you ever sent her a card or written her a note - she kept it. I know because I’ve found them all. I even found a poem I wrote in the 3rd grade about hot dogs …. And a very early art project from Chris' where he just scribbled all over an old normal Rockwell picture. She called it art, dated it and kept it for over 45 years.

That was her way of loving and cherishing all of us.

My mom always said she was not great at any one thing but she was good enough at a lot of things. But she was wrong. She was amazing at everything she did. Early in her life She was an amazing artist who painted and made crafts she would sell to her friends... she also played the piano and was one heck of a two-stepper …(she would hate that i just told her Baptist friends about her and Gary dancing skills but I have found memories watching them and she really was a sight to see.)

Many of these earlier hobbies were replaced later with passions like traveling, photography, quilting hiking, of course time with her grandkids.

Career wise she graduated with a teaching degree and taught in her 20s and this suited her well, but she wanted to expand her horizons and be challeneged, so in her 30s she opened up a womens clothing store in downtown Benton called Judy’s Place. I used to love watching her run this store, even though, if you knew my mom, you knew she didn’t care about fashion at all. But this inspired her future as an entrepreneur.

When we moved to Glenwood to be closer to her family, she decided to switch careers again and not only become a cosmetologist, but to open up her own salon which was right by our house in Glenwood and right by Gary’s shop. They wanted to work close together and she wanted to be near her kids.

Her shop, Pink N Shears, allowed her the flexibility to spend as much time as she wanted with her kids. She was at every event we were ever remotely involved in. I remember being so embarrassed because she was the only parent at the pep rallies other than the teachers. I would tell her that and she would just say, “you won't even notice im here."

But we did.

When my brother and I started having our own children, she became Super grandma. Our kids called her Mommy 2. I thought it was just a fluke bc my brother and I called our own grandma (judys mom) Momma 2, or TuTu, and after she passed it was like the torch got passed to my mom. my son started calling her mommy 2...almost immediately. Im beginning to wonder now if it maybe was her own doing and started bribing him with cookies in exchange for calling her mommie two but I guess we'll never know. She was now Mommy 2. That’s what she wanted and that’s what she got. The older half of her grandkids called her Mammaw Judy and the other half called her Mommy 2. And she really enjoyed being mommie two because that’s what she was to her grandkids, a second mom.

Speaking of bossy, my mom was a little bit bossy, but in a great, fantastic way. There was not a time in my life that I can remember saying something out loud to her about a problem I was dealing with or something as minor as “I need to go get gas,” she would tell me exactly what I needed to do. Even for something as simple as getting gas, she would tell me exactly where I needed to stop on the way home to not have to go out of my way or to the one that was safest. Maybe bossy isn’t the right word, or maybe it is, but she just always knew what to do and always, always had to help and know we were taken care of.

Now I know my brother and I got lots of great advice but probably not nearly as much as Gary. They did build two houses, a treehouse together and had a thousand other projects they did together so I know he as been of the receiving end of her instructions many, many times.

And for the record. My mom was always right.

We will miss this. Her advice, her love, her support.

And if she were here now, I think she would want me to leave you with this:

Love with all your heart.

Follow your dreams no matter how crazy they may be.

Explore the world and experience new things.

And capture the moments... Whether through experiences or through the lens of a camera - just Live life to the fullest and cherish those memories.

Her service were handled by Davis-Smith Funeral Home, Glenwood, and were held at 1 p.m. Monday, November 30 at Grace Baptist Church in Glenwood followed by a graveside service at Coffman Cemetery in Hopper, AR.

Pallbearers were Greg, Dustin and Yancy Holmes, Jamie Huey, Tim Robbins and Kenny Thomas.