Marie Holderman

Marie Holderman was an American newspaper owner, editor and publisher of the Cocoa Tribune for almost 50 years, known as the "First Lady of Florida Journalism".

Early life Holderman was born in Brazil, Indiana near Terre Haute in west central Indiana. She was the eldest of four children and her father worked in a tile factory. She attended Indiana State University then married Chauncey Holderman on October 12, 1905. The couple moved to Bradenton on Florida's west coast, where he was general manager of the Bradenton Light & Power Company. In 1913 an injury to his spine left Chauncey as a wheelchair user.

Career and work After she saw an ad seeking a publisher for a local newspaper in Brevard County on Florida's east coast, she sold the Manatee and moved her daughter and husband to Cocoa, a fishing community of about 900 residents. “She was a relentless voice urging community improvement, from roads to schools,” wrote historian Roy Laughlin in “Good to Hear from You Again,” a historical memoir of the Cocoa area.

Residence Marie Holderman and her husband built the Haywire House in 1918 at 61 Mulberry Street in Cocoa. She freely made her home library of Florida history books available to other readers and published stories of Cocoa’s history in her newspaper, solicited from local pioneers in the community.

The original offices for the Cocoa Tribune were built across the street from her residence, which today houses the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library. Mrs. Holderman was named a Great Floridian in 2000 and her plaque is displayed there along with a meeting room named in her honor.

Family Of her three children, only one, Mary Jane, survived to adulthood, but died at age 49, leaving Holderman to raise two granddaughters. Chauncey Holderman died in 1928 at age 57. Marie was 83 when she died in 1968, two years after selling her newspaper.