Special to the News
Submitted by Mamie M. Ellis
Jimmie Ira Holley, a 1965 J.D. Thompson High School graduate and former Coosa County resident, was killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Jimmie was working in his office as an accountant at the Pentagon when the airplane crashed into the building.
After graduation from J. D. Thompson High School in 1965, Holley joined the U.S. Army and served a tour in Vietnam. After 15 years of service, he retired as a staff sergeant.
Holley received his Associate of Arts Degree in accounting in 1970 at Montgomery College in Maryland. He survived a kidney transplant and quadruple bypass surgery. Holley and his wife, Martha, resided in Maryland.
Jimmie was the son of Jordan and Dezzie Leonard-Holley, husband to Martha Jackson-Holley, father of Kelly and Daniel Jackson, grandfather to Kayla Walker, and brother of Jordean Holley Wright, Jerry, Bobby, Hubert, Otis, Dezzie, Terrise, Nathaniel, and Kennedy Joe.
As a school student Holley liked math and physical education and played on the first football team at J. D. Thompson. He loved his mother and always encouraged his siblings.
The Holley family lived in the Ray community and attended Good Hope Church, which later became Good Grove Baptist Church.
The J.D. Thompson High School Alumni Association remembers and honors Jimmie Ira Holley and all those that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
