Sister Mary Melanie Holliday (born Martha Ann "Mattie" Holliday; December 14, 1850 - April 19, 1939) was an American Catholic nun. As a member of the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

, she served as Mother Superior at the Convent and Academy of St. Vincent de Paul in

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

and at the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. While living in the convent in Savannah, she worked as a schoolteacher in the affiliated academy. When Holliday moved to the convent in Atlanta, she worked as a nurse at St. Joseph's Infirmary. She is believed to be the inspiration behind

Melanie Hamilton Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is a fictional character first appearing in the 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell. In the Gone with the Wind (film), 1939 film she was portrayed by Olivia de Havilland. Mel ...

and Carreen O'Hara in the novel ''

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

'', which was written by her second cousin once-removed,

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

Biography

Holliday was born Martha Ann Holliday in

Jonesboro, Georgia Jonesboro is a city in and the county seat of Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,724 as of the 2010 census. The city's name was originally spelled Jonesborough. During the Civil War, the final skirmish in the Atlanta Cam ...

on December 14, 1850. She was one of eight children of Captain Robert Kennedy Holliday, a Confederate military officer and

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In m ...

who served in the 7th Georgia Infantry during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, and Mary Anne Fitzgerald, whose family owned Rural Home Plantation. She was a cousin of the gambler and gunfighter John Henry "Doc" Holliday and of the landowner and businesswoman

Annie Fitzgerald Stephens Annie Elizabeth Fitzgerald Stephens (December 23, 1844 – February 17, 1934) was an American landowner, businesswoman, and political activist. She was born to a prominent planting family in Clayton County, Georgia and grew up on the family plan ...

. She had a close relationship with Doc Holliday, frequently writing to him throughout her life. During the Civil War, Holliday and her mother and siblings took refuge in

Valdosta Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2021 had a ...

on the farm of her uncle, Henry Burroughs Holliday. They stayed in Valdosta from October 1864 until the war ended in May 1865. She entered the

at the Convent and Academy of St. Vincent de Paul in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

in 1883, taking the name Mary Melanie, after Saint Melania the Younger. She was a member of the order for fifty-six years. After living in the convent in Savannah, she taught at Sacred Heart School in Augusta and later became the

mother superior An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

there. She then served as Superior of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in

and worked as a nurse at St. Joseph's Infirmary. She was often visited by her second cousin,

Maybelle Stephens Mitchell Mary Isabel "Maybelle" Stephens Mitchell (January 13, 1872 – January 25, 1919) was an American suffragist, clubwoman, and activist. Born into a prestigious planting family of Irish Catholic background, she was educated at the Villa Maria Conve ...

, and her cousin's daughter,

. She died at the age of eighty-eight at St. Joseph's Infirmary and is buried in the Sisters of Mercy lot in

Westview Cemetery Westview Cemetery, located in Atlanta, Georgia, is the largest civilian cemetery in the Southeastern United States, comprising more than , 50 percent of which is undeveloped. ( Georgia National Cemetery, for military veterans and their families, ...

. Holliday was the inspiration behind the character

, and possibly Carreen O'Hara, in the novel ''

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holliday, Mary Melanie 1850 births 1939 deaths American people of Irish descent 19th-century American Roman Catholic nuns American women nurses Catholics from Georgia (U.S. state) People from Jonesboro, Georgia Roman Catholic abbesses Schoolteachers from Georgia (U.S. state) Sisters of Mercy Women in the American Civil War 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns