Holmen appears in Greenes award -winning non -fiction book “Beting for Sheetrock” by Greenes award -winning non -fiction book. The report tells the story of a poor black man who directed his community to question the local sheriff, who worked both sides of the law in Georgia Coastal Mcintosh County in the early 1970s.
“In search of social justice, she was not afraid of throwing a hill of an ants,” said William H. “Bert” Gregory, a Wiener, Georgia, a lawyer and board member of Georgia Legal Services.
Phyllis Holmen died on Thursday in her home in Atlanta with complications from a long illness. She was 75 years old. She comes from Norwood Park in Chicago and was the oldest of Arne and Doris Holmens three children. Her grandparents were Danish immigrants and the family was proud of their legacy. They regularly went from their house in Northside to Dania Club, a Danish club in Humboldt Park of Southside, where their grandfather cooked bar and grandmother.
“Nobody in our family was a lawyer,” said her brother Ralph Holmen. “Our father was a house painter and decorator, our mother was a housewife. Most Danish were craftsmen.”
Phyllis learned to do the complicated Danish baked goods that her grandmother and mother produced, and she continued to do as an adult for family and friends. When she married the lawyer Jonathan Hewett, she insisted on the reception with a cranesekage, a traditional Danish wedding cake that looks like a ciggurate, says her brother Ralph Holmen.
After graduating from the Law School of the University of Illinois, Phyllis took over in the office for legal services in Georgia in Savannah in 1974, “which was a very hostile place for lawyers and civil rights lawyers,” said lawyer Robert Remar, who worked there. It was the only integrated law firm in the city.
Melissa Faye Greene remembered how Phyllis would invite the employees to their Savannah apartment on Friday evening to play board games. Instead of monopoly or risk, she had found these boring, non -competitive games, “said Greene.” She didn't want us to be in the throat. We would help each other on a mountain or something. “
A lawyer sued the Savannah office and his manager Steve Gottlieb and tried to close it. Some officials went into a tailpin, says Gottlieb, but “Phyllis has no panic, she started looking at the lawsuit and played it through the book. She let it forward to the federal court. Sonny Seiler represented us and the judge dismissed the case.”
As a child in Chicago, Ralph Holmen knew that his older sister had something special. It was cerebral, compassionate and concerned about other people. When she decided to become a lawyer, Ralph said: “She told me,” I think I can help many people. “I think she has spent her whole life thinking of others.”
Phyllis Holmen served 43 years at the Georgia Legal Services Program. Hal Daniel, who worked on the organization's board for several years, also worked with her on the Board of Directors of the Georgia public prosecutor. He described her as someone with “great intellectual skills and administrative”. When another member of the Governor Council complained that Holmen spoke “too much” about Georgia Legal Services, “laughed Daniel and said to the man:” Well, that's her job. “
As the Executive Director of Georgia Legal Services, Phyllis has set high standards, but then the lawyers of the employees helped to fulfill these standards, former colleagues said. She was often looking for and found various sources of financing for the program for the non -profit organization.
“She really believed in the legal system,” said Linda Lowe, an analyst for health policy who worked with Holmen for more than 30 years. “She devoted herself to the help of people with low incomes. She thought, if we simply kept it, we simply bent the task that we would improve things.”
In addition to her husband and brother, Phylli's Holmen from Stepsons Bret and David Hewett, three nieces, her brother Neil Holmen, two steps and a step -nave, granddaughter Lena Hewett and grandson Taylor Hewett are survived.
