8747-R2_ML&P_Hollis_2022-2023_AnnualReport_Web

Town of Hollis 2022-2023 Annual Report Dedication

Sylvia Smith 1937-2023

It is with great honor and pride that the Hollis Select Board dedicate this year’s Annual Report to resident Sylvia Smith. Her daughter, Jean McInnis, was asked to assist with the writing of our dedication. The following is in the words of Jean. First, one would think Sylvia was born and raised in Hollis, but for the first 10 years of her life she was raised in South Portland. Her parents, Lawson and Barbara Nichols, packed up the family and moved to Hollis. This is where Sylvia would start her young career at her parents Esso filling station at the intersection of Routes 202 and 35 in Hollis Center. She would help with the lunch counter and pumping gas while her mother was busy out back with her younger siblings. The Esso station was where the first TV was sold in Hollis. Her father was a mechanic and the Fire Chief in Hollis. Sylvia was witness to the fires of ’47. She recalled the volunteers and any able-bodied men coming to the filling station to get fed and then literally sleeping where they sat or on the floor to rest up for the next round of firefighting. She was also witness to the building and opening of the flood gates of Skelton Dam, recalling that her mother brought her to the brook the day before Skelton Dam would be released, and her mother said, “It will all

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