Elizabeth "Betty" Jane Holmes

Elizabeth Jane (Ames) Holmes, 96, a retired registered nurse and Planned Parenthood clinic director, died March 27, 2015, at her home in Meadville, Pa.

“Betty” Holmes was born to Eva M. (Schuyler) and Ralph E. Ames of Vernon, N.Y., on Dec. 5, 1918.

She graduated from Syracuse Memorial School of Nursing, Syracuse, N.Y., becoming a registered nurse in 1941. She worked at Syracuse Memorial Hospital from 1941 to 1943, rising from staff surgical nurse to head surgical nurse.

While living in Syracuse, she met her husband, Dr. John A. Holmes II. After marrying, the couple settled in Lawrence, Kansas. There, Mrs. Holmes gave birth to a daughter, Ann, in 1945, and a son, John, in 1947. In 1952, the family moved to Elmira, N.Y., after Dr. Holmes took a position at Corning Glass in neighboring Corning, N.Y. In 1955, Mrs. Holmes gave birth to twins, Robert and Richard.

In 1965, Mrs. Holmes worked as a nurse secretary for BOCES, a three-county vocational school in Elmira. The following year, she started working part-time as a substitute school nurse in Elmira area schools. In 1968, she was approached to become the first executive director of a new clinic Planned Parenthood opened to serve Chemung County.

As executive director, Mrs. Holmes directed her staff to do outreach into the surrounding rural areas, providing many families not only with birth control information, but connecting them to government sources of health care and other services. When Planned Parenthood opened a clinic in neighboring Corning to serve Steuben County, Mrs. Holmes became director of the joint Chemung County-Corning unit. This was notable because Corning was the birthplace of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
In 1973, as executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Southern Tier (serving Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties and encompassing a staff of 19), Mrs. Holmes was named to the board of directors of the then newly formed Genesee Region Family Planning Program, Inc. The program coordinated the work of eight projects in 10 counties. Mrs. Holmes served on a number of Planned Parenthood’s regional and national committees, including being Northeast representative to the National Executive Directors Council Steering Committee.

In 1976, Dr. Holmes closed his private practice in Elmira and the couple returned to Lawrence, Kansas, where they lived for about a year before relocating to Clinton, N.C., where Dr. Holmes worked as an emergency room physician. They lived there for about 10 years before moving to Shawnee, Kansas, where two of their sons, Robert and John III, also a doctor, lived. Dr. Holmes died in 1990. Mrs. Holmes began many years of work as a volunteer in the endoscopy department at Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Shawnee Mission; she was named the hospital’s volunteer of the year in 1995.

In 2009, Mrs. Holmes moved to Meadville, Pa., where her daughter Ann lives, and settled at the Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community.

She is survived by her daughter, Ann H. Areson of Meadville, Pa.; two sons, Robert A. Holmes of Prairie Village, Kansas, and his wife, Te, and Richard W. Holmes of Hyannis, Mass., and his partner, AnnMarie Richard; her daughter-in-law, Christine P. Holmes of Melbourne, Fla.; six grandchildren, Sarah Holmes, serving in the Peace Corps in Zambia, Africa, Jessica Holmes of Seattle, Wash., Peter Holmes of Ashburn, Va., Lauren Wexler of Philadelphia, Pa., and her husband Tim, Natalie Holmes of Fall River, Mass., and Jacob Holmes of New Orleans, La.; and two great-grandchildren, Evan of Fall River, Mass., and Elizabeth of Philadelphia, Pa.; and a niece and a nephew.

In addition to her late husband, deceased family members include her older brother, Robert Ames of Morehead City, N.C.; a younger brother, Bruce, who died in infancy; and her son, Dr. John A. Holmes III of Shawnee, Kansas.

Burial will be private and a memorial service will be held at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Crawford County, 464 Pine St., Meadville, Pa. 16335, or the FSH Society, 450 Bedford St., Lexington, Mass. 02420.

Arrangements under the direction of Stephen P. Mizner Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Inc., 404 Chestnut St., Meadville.

Share your condolences or a memory at www.miznerfuneralhome.com