Bertha Marian Holt (Feb. 5, 1904 - 2000) founded the Holt International Children's Service organization and fought for the law to change in America to allow for more than two international adoptions. He helped thousands of children from South Korea and around the world to find homes and adopted.
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Bertha Marian Holt was born on February 5, 1904 in Des Moines, Iowa to Clifford and Eva Holt. His father was a school teacher and a mail carrier. He received his nursing degree in 1926 and married his cousin, Harry Holt, on December 31, 1927. They moved to South Dakota where they were "indigenous peasants" meaning they worked the land owned by others until they could save for the land themselves.. During the Depression, they had to leave their farm and move to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. They prospered in Oregon, eventually having a wood factory.
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Adoption
In 1954, Bertha, a nurse, and her husband, a farmer and a woodcutter, went to a high school auditorium in Eugene, Oregon, to watch a movie about children in South Korean orphanage in Amerasia. The Holts began to send money to the South Korean orphanage but soon decided to do more. They both want to adopt eight children, but keep this idea to themselves because they think the other couple will think this is too much. The federal law at the time did not allow families to adopt more than two children born overseas.
In 1955, Congress passed the Bill for Certain Orphans War Support, in particular for the Holt family to adopt eight children. They adopted four boys and four girls from infancy to three and a half years.
Agency creation
In 1956, Holts founded Holt International Children's Services. There is no system at the time of international adoption. Holt's grandmother, as she is known, continues to be active in the agency until the day she dies.
While in South Korea in 1964, Harry Holt suffered a heart attack and died. Many believe the agency will close, but Mrs. Holt took over and traveled tirelessly. He works to improve conditions at Il San Center in Korea where Holts built an orphanage and he lobbied other countries to organize an adoption program.
Family life
The Holts children include: Molly Holt, Barbara Chambers, Suzanne Peterson, Linda Pack, Robert Holt, Mary Last, Christine Russell, Helen Stampe, Nat Holt, Paul Holt, and Betty Blankenship. She has three sisters, Beulah Stronczek, Katherine Stanger and Grace Fisher; brother, William L. Holt; 19 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren at the time of his death.
Awards
- Mother's National Award of the Year in 1966
- Korean National Merit Award in 1995 (as the only non-Korean person ever awarded)
- World Record for a 400-meter race in over 90 age groups at the Hayward Classic in 1996
Death
Bertha died at the age of 96 in 2000 at her home in Creswell, Oregon.
Books
- Seed From the East by Bertha Holt and David Wisner
- Bring My Kids From Afar: Harry Holt's Dream Revealed by Bertha Holt
- Created for God's Glory by Bertha Holt
References
External links
- Bertha's "Grandmas" Heritage Holt, Holt International
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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