Willie Holmes

Name: Willie Holmes
Birth Name: William Clay Holmes Sr
Hometown: Portsmouth, Ohio, USA
Birthplace: Webbville, Kentucky, USA
Died: 1984-08-19 (Age:80)
Pro Boxer: Record

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According to family history, Willie Holmes (whose father was Lilburn Holmes (1879-1917)) was mainly self-taught and boxed locally. He was well known by the older South Shore, Greenup County generation. Bill Holmes, as he was referred to in later years, also was a deputy sheriff in South Shore, KY, and owned several other bars and lunchrooms in the area. He owned the Crystal Palace bar and restaurant during the 1930s after his boxing career ended. In the 1950s, he built two duplexes and two houses on Holmes Drive in Portsmouth, Ohio. He lived in the front house until his death in 1984.

Holmes was married three times. His first wife was Aileen Crawford. They had a son, William C Holmes Jr. (who became a well-known principal of Sunshine Elementary School in South Shore, KY). Willie and Aileen's marriage was short, due to his many attractions to women of the day, according to his grandson. In the 1940s, he was married to Thelma Fitzgerald. His final marriage was when he was 62, to the 32-year-old Loraine Detillion, who is still living as of 2010. They had a son, William Clayton Holmes, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, as does Loraine.

Willie Holmes died in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio.