Brenda Oliver Holt

Brenda Ann Allison Oliver Holt, RN,  80, of 136 First Avenue, Sylva, died Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at Solace Hospice in Asheville.  Mrs. Holt  was the first woman elected mayor of Sylva serving as mayor from 1992 until 2009.  Before becoming mayor, Mrs. Holt was also the first woman to serve on the town’s city council, first joining the board in 1981.   Mrs. Holt’s extensive public service included numerous other community action and public service organizations and garnered her many recognitions. Among those recongonitions are the Head Start Center Dedication in her honor on January 27, 2006  as well as being named to the North Carolina Community Action Association Hall of Fame in 2021. Beyond her extensive public service, Mrs. Holt worked for 38 years in nursing in neonatal, school and surgical nursing before eventually retiring as Director of Surgical Services at Sylva’s Harris Regional Hospital in 1998.  She was a 1961 graduate of  the University Of Tennessee School Of Nursing.
Mrs. Holt was born Brenda Ann Allison on August 28, 1941 in Morgan County, Alabama and is the daughter of the late Johnnie Hugh and Roena Pettit Allison.  She was preceded in death by two husbands, James Edward Oliver, M.D., married 1965 – 1993, and William Paul Holt, Jr., married 2002 – 2018. She was also preceded in death by a sister, Mary Evelyn Allison, and three sons, Jimmy Oliver, Francis Oliver and Andrew Holt and one great-grandson, Oliver Ryder Iberra. 
Mrs. Holt is survived by daughter Lora Gayle Rector and husband, Gene Rector of Kannapolis; sons Gary Oliver and wife, Debbie of Abilene, Texas; Bobby Oliver and wife, Liz of Morganton; William Paul Holt III (Flip) and wife, Cindy of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida;  and daughters  Jayne Woodyard and husband, Dr. James (Woody) Woodyard, of Woodstock, Georgia and Dr. Mandy Taylor and husband, Dr. Larry Shane Taylor, of North Wilkesboro.
Mrs. Holt is survived by eight grandchildren:  Emily Rector Harmon and husband John Wesley, of Greensboro;  Megan Rector Griffin and husband Brad, of Mt. Pleasant;  Zane Oliver of Raleigh and fiance Jillian Dunbar; Dakota Oliver of Morganton; Mary Catherine Woodyard Iberra and husband, Jacob Iberra; Ethan Woodyard and Andrew Woodyard all of Woodstock, Georgia; and Michelle Oliver of Abilene, Texas; and five great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are encouraged to be made to the Brenda Oliver Holt Scholarship Endowment at Southwestern Community College, The Community Table of Sylva, or Mountain Projects.