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In memory of

Rev. Dr. Nancy Holden

Thousand Oaks, CA, USA

September 9, 1934 - August 1, 2020

Sep 9, 1934 - Aug 1, 2020

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On Saturday, August 1, 2020, the Rev. Dr. Nancy Holden died in Thousand Oaks, CA at the age of 85. The cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest resulting from a pulmonary embolism.

Nancy was born on September 9, 1934 in Louisville, Kentucky to Luna Elsie Cash and Timothy Jay Cash. She was the youngest of five children. She graduated Shawnee High School in 1952, two years before the Brown vs Board of Education ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Witnessing the injustice of segregation influenced Nancy’s lifelong commitment to racial justice and equal rights.

Her first child, Dennis, was born during a brief marriage to Charles Calhoun from 1953-56. In 1958, she married Lewis Lubka, with whom she had four children, Willard, Reuben, Henry, and Lorraine. She and Lew were close friends of Anne and Carl Braden and worked with them and other civil rights leaders to end segregation in Louisville. After divorcing Lewis in 1978, she became Nancy Holden when she married Douglas Holden, an Air Force veteran of the Vietnam era and a dedicated environmentalist, in 1981. She and Doug remained together until Doug’s death in May, 2019.

In 1982, Nancy achieved a Bachelor of University Studies degree at North Dakota State University in Fargo. Three years later, she received a Master of Divinity degree at Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. In 1993 she received her Doctor of Ministry degree at United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota.

Nancy was ordained in 1987 in the United Methodist Church, North Dakota Conference, and served several congregations in North Dakota. After retiring as a United Methodist pastor in 2002, she was subsequently admitted to Final Fellowship as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2010.

Nancy was a strong and tireless advocate and activist in social and political movements including racial justice and civil rights, feminism, voting rights, labor, the peace movement, advocacy for immigrants and refugees, GLBT liberation, restorative justice, protecting the environment and wildlife, the rights of people with disabilities, and universal health care including mental health and addiction treatment services. She was also a prolific writer, as a poet, newspaper columnist, and novelist.

Nancy was preceded in death by her husband Doug in 2019, and her son Henry, who died in 1991. She is survived by her children Willie, Reuben, Lorraine, grandchildren Emily, Brian, Martha, Henry, Sophia, Dawn, Manny, Ben and Solomon, and her beloved cats Howie, Teddy, and Penelope.

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