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Before he worked his dreams into reality, Henry Holley of Hempstead washed cars as part of his transportation business, out in the freezing cold, with cold water, at one point with his son, who was not more than 13 years old.
"I got very angry about it," Henry Holley Jr. recalled of his father, "and he said to me, ‘Son, I know it’s rough out here, but I need you to hang in there with me. One day, we’re going to have our own garage and that garage will have heat and hot water.’ "
A few years later, in the 1980s, the elder Holley bought 260 Main St. in Hempstead, a two-story office building with hot water, and also heaters in the ceiling of its massive garage. From there, he oversaw his companies: taxi and limo service, electrical services, automotive repair, custodial cleaning, and car waxing and washing.
Holley, entrepreneur, community activist and founder of The Holley Group consulting agency, died March 5. He was 86.
Busy Long Islander
He served as president of 100 Black Men of Long Island and received the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Long Island Association, where he was one of the first Black trustees. His appointments included the Nassau County Planning Commission and the Nassau County Minority Affairs Commission, both from 1996 to 2002.
He was a consultant on The Lighthouse Project, a Nassau Coliseum mixed development proposed by friend and billionaire business owner Charles Wang, and tried to start a minority women’s incubator for the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in Suffolk.
"He showed up at a time when few African Americans were in the room with the region's power base," said Phil Andrews, president of Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce. "He opened the door for many people on Long Island by facilitating introductions."
The son of sharecroppers, Holley outlived Jim Crow segregation laws, overcame alcoholism at a young age, learned from CEOs he chauffeured, bought one of the first stretch limos and an early version of the party bus, and got his GED when he was well past 50, the owner of several businesses by then, those who knew him said.
"I’m a dreamer," he’d tell people.
"He was relentless in his pursuit of what he dreamed," said daughter Mynita Holley Atkinson of Hempstead.
Humble beginnings
Born in rural Windsor, North Carolina, Henry was one of eight children. He didn’t go to school much because he had to till the fields day and night, sometimes driving a donkey cart filled with crops, he would tell his children.
In 1953, when he was about 14, Holley and part of his family settled in Brooklyn, where he met his future wife, Kaye, playing at a handball court, family members said.
Holley joined a brother in Hempstead driving taxis, saved enough to start his own service, called Pub Taxi, then founded Hempstead Transportation Services in 1966, with more than 20 town cars, limousines and other vehicles chauffeuring the well-to-do and celebrities like Jets Hall of Famer Joe Namath. Some clients became mentors and friends.
"When he got out of the immediate Hempstead, Roosevelt area, it opened his eyes to the world," Holley Jr. said. "That’s what drove him to want more."
Henry Holley Sr. built a variety of businesses, from East Coast Realty to using his garage space to wash and wax cars, those who knew him said. One day, a car salesman drove a black and cranberry stretch limo to his Main Street building and the younger Holley remembers his father’s eyes "glistening." He bought it for $45,000 at a time when stretch limos were rare, the son said.
Family time
At least once a week, he’d take the family out to a nice restaurant, a time to catch up. "I haven’t gotten rich," Holley told the Long Island Business News in 2008. "But I’ve taken care of my family."
In one of his most cherished deeds, he set up Alcoholics Anonymous chapters and attended them to teach his own story of young addiction, including sessions at his Antioch Baptist Church in Hempstead, said its pastor, Bishop Phillip Elliott.
"One of his favorite quotes was ‘you’ve got to learn to listen and listen to learn,’ " Elliott said.
In later years, Holley focused more on mentoring and projects that helped people, Holley Atkinson said: "He had to give back what was given to him."
Besides his son and daughter, Holley is survived by sons Michael Holley of Hempstead, Steven Hamilton of Richmond, Virginia, and Christopher Holley of Norfolk Virginia.
A wake is set from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Antioch Baptist Church. A funeral service has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday at the church, followed by burial at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.
