‘Father’ and Maggie Perkins honored with reinterment at Mt. Olive Cemetery 

Editor’s Note: Maggie Tinsley Perkins was born April 6, 1889 and died July 10, 1932. The following are remarks made by her descendant, Aikisha Holly Colon, during the August 22, 2025, reinterment ceremony at Mt. Olive Cemetery, situated on the campus of Jackson State University:

Mama Maggie, as we called her, was the sister of Mary Smiley Hill, Robert “Uncle Bud” Smiley, and Bertha Smiley Fields. Mama Maggie was married to Tecumseh Phillips Perkins, A District Insurance Superintendent in Helena, Arkansas.

They were the parents of two children: Bernard Tinsley Perkins, doctoral graduate of Meharry Medical College of Pharmacy, and Bertha Tinsley Perkins, Bachelor of Library Science graduate of Fisk University. Parenthetically, they both graduated from Jackson State College High School when it existed.

Mama Maggie transitioned prior to the birth of her grandchildren: Kermit Wells Holly Jr. – 1933, now 91 years old; Harvey Bernard Holly – 1934, now 90 years old; and Sherrill Tecumseh Holly – 1938, now 87 years old.

Her great grandchildren are: Tonya Holly Spann, Kevin Tecumseh Holly, Keith Bernard Holly, and Aikisha Holly Colon. And there are multiple fifth and sixth generation heirs.

The family homestead at 306 N. Farish Street still exists with a new structure in honor of the home where Mary Smiley Hill lived and raised her niece and nephew, Bernard and Bertha, after the death of her sister Maggie. It stands next to 300 N. Farish Street, the family’s commercial building.

Presently, the building houses an exhibit not only of the Hill Holly families, but of the Historic Farish Street District in the J. McMichael Gallery. 

With this, we honor a life well lived of Maggie Tinsley Perkins whose DNA continues to date, including my children – William Muriel Colon IV and Holly LaSonya-Grace Colon.