Hey Vicki,

Well, I'm trying hard to find something for you to go on here...

NOTE - KCK is Kansas City Kansas, KCMO is Kansas City Missouri, and Greater Kansas City area directories did not distinguish black residents from white.

I checked the published KCMO cemetery indexes for William or Lilly Holmes - nada.

Maple Hill Cemetery which was (is?) a very large cemetery in KCK had the following HOLMES listed (I've only recorded those that were listed as colored/black):

Name Death Date Grave/Lot/Block Fun. Home
HOLMES, Annie 07/29/1986 5-45-39 Watkins
[black female]
HOLMES, Ethel 01/22/1960 1-9-18 Manlove & Williams
[note says Ethel was 61 years old, listed as a Black male, presumably a typo]
HOLMES, S. R. 03/11/1920 5-42-6 None listed
[this is also a Black male]
HOLMES, Tommie 08/04/1937 2-111-4 None listed
[black male]

There are two William Holmes listed but both are white males, and neither are in the vicinity of the Holmes individuals listed above. Source book is called "Maple Hill Cemetery" written by Leta Billups Scott, 1996.

Also, I checked the Jackson county MO obituary index, nothing that seemed like your Holmeses there either.

But, I did find in the KCMO city directories the following:

1935
HOLMES, Lillian waiter Streets Cafe r1510 E 16th
HOLMES, Lillie maid 1509 Tracy Av
No one matched the names of the children
[needless to see there are many William Holmes but each had a spouse listed and none was Lillie/Lillian]

1939
HOLMES, Mrs. Lillie M. h 1524 Troost Av

1940
HOLMES, Edward (Ethel) janitor at Wellington Apts. h bsmt 519 W 11th
no Lillie or Lillian, and no other names matched the ones you gave...

Also did a SSDI search for Novella with birth year 1923, where the issuing state was Missouri (I tried Kansas as well, but couldn't find a good match in terms of the birth year):

SSDI Records:
CARREATHERS, Novella b. 17 Apr 1923 d. Mar 1991, no last residence given
JONES, Novella S. b. 26 Dec 1923 d. 17 Mar 2006, Paducah, McCracken, KY
MARTIN, Novella b. 5 May 1923 d. Jun 1985, Lilbourn, New Mardrid, MO
McGILBRAY, Novella b. 5 May 1923 d. 16 Apr 1995, KCMO
RODELANDER, Novella b. 30 Jan 1923 d. 11 Feb 2004, Tunas, Dallas, MO

Do you feel like I'm on the right path here? I do also have access to microfilmed Courthouse records for Jackson county MO (which would include KCMO) and they go way back into the 1800s and well into the 1900s, probate, vital records, school records, etc... Unfortunately, they are not index - wouldn't you know - and extremely voluminous - so we would have to narrow down our playing field a bit before those records might be useful...

Susan

Of course, we can always take a stab at Kansas (outside of KCK) as well.