Bobbi Holzer receives rare honor: 75 years with DAR

Bobbi Holzer receives rare honor: 75 years with DAR

By Dean Wright

[email protected]

From left, Roberta Roush, DAR State Chaplain Robin Rose, Bobbi Holzer and French Colony Regent Emily Dailey discuss the 75th year of Holzer’s membership in the DAR.

GALLIPOLIS — Daughters of the American Revolution French Colony Chapter members celebrated Bobbi Holzer’s 75 years of membership in the organization Saturday afternoon in Holzer Hospital on Jackson Pike.

Roberta “Bobbi” Holzer, 94, of Gallipolis, according to many, has served as a pillar of the community and was the wife of the late Dr. Charles E. Holzer Jr. Between the pair of them, they had five children.

The Holzer family name has become a household term when connected with health care in southeastern Ohio. The Holzers are known for being founding members of a medical care institution now called the Holzer Health System spread across several counties in southeastern Ohio and also reaching into West Virginia.

According to Ohio DAR Chaplain Robin Rose, certificates for 75 years of membership are relatively unheard of in the organization. Local DAR ladies had to contact the national DAR headquarters in Washington, D.C., to have a new award drafted for Holzer.

“They have 25-year and 50-year certificates,” said Rose. “We had to get this one specially made for Bobbi.”

Holzer was born in Point Pleasant, W.Va., and joined the Col. Charles Lewis Point Pleasant DAR Chapter with her papers “going through” on Dec. 4, 1940.

DAR members must genealogically prove themselves as having had a relative who fought in the American Revolutionary War. According to French Colony Regent Emily Dailey, Holzer’s ancestor was named Joseph Woods.

According to Dailey, the average income in Gallia County in the 1940s was around $1,900. The average house was $6,500. A car was around $800 and minimum wage was around 30 cents.

Dailey lauded Holzer for spending her time in the DAR while supporting her family in what it had done “bringing health care and bringing the quality of life we have here (southeast Ohio) today. We probably wouldn’t be here without it.”

“You’re a kind and faithful person,” Dailey said. “You’re a very loving mother, a devoted wife and you are definitely a pillar in our community. You are somebody that should be followed and recognized for everything that you’ve done. We’ve been very blessed to have you here with our DAR chapter and we’re very honored to have you here for 75 years.”

According to past regent and current DAR member Roberta Roush, “Now, Bobbi, I have your certificate from the national organization and I have to tell you this. They didn’t know what to put on it because nobody else has accomplished this. So this is an original certificate.”

According to the DAR’s website, the national society has close to 125 years of tradition with more than 930,000 members nationwide since the organization’s founding. The group was founded in 1890. The organization’s ladies make it their mission to promote American history, education and patriotism. Genealogy is one the group’s chief interest.

Dean Wright can be reached at 740-446-2342, ext. 2103.

Salt Magazine




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