Obituary of Emma Holliday Collins Seymour

Emmaday Seymour passed away December 8, 2020, in the company of her loving family (in a protective setting). She was afflicted with COVID-19, which was just too much for her body to overcome on top of pre-existing conditions. The family will be forever grateful for the heroic care of the Atrium staff and her wonderful personal physician, "Dr. Jane."

She was the daughter of the late Harold Arthur Collins and Emma Holliday Collins of Southern Pines, NC and beloved wife of William Gordon Seymour of Charlotte. Emmaday was preceded in death by her brothers Harold Arthur Collins, Jr. and James McLeod Holliday Collins, and her niece Elizabeth Collins Johnston (Beth).

Emmaday was born in Lumberton, NC and moved at an early age with her family to Southern Pines where she grew up. She was a graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg, SC with an A.B. in Religion. As a senior she was selected to be a part of a small group called the "Spirit of Converse" and was president of her senior dorm.

She was beautiful and charming, with an exceptional talent as a dancer. As such, she was recruited for beauty contests and was chosen Miss Sanford, NC. She subsequently placed as a finalist in the Miss North Carolina Contest in 1963.

She married her husband of fifty-six years, William Gordon Seymour, on November 7, 1964 in Southern Pines. They lived in Quantico, VA for Bill's training; then in Tustin, CA while Bill was stationed at El Toro Marine Air Base. Their first daughter, Holly, was born there one week before Bill was deployed to Vietnam. Emmaday and Holly waited for his return, surrounded by supportive friends she had gathered. After their Marine tour (Emmaday insisted she was in the Marines too) they moved to Charlotte in 1968 for a job with IBM. Two more daughters, Jane and Shannon, were born in Charlotte, and Emmaday set about making a home for Bill and the girls.

Whether in Southern Pines, at Converse, Quantico, Tustin or Charlotte, Emmaday never met a stranger. She captured the room, in all the best ways, wherever she went. This was because she absolutely loved people. She delighted in genuine conversations with all sorts of people. It made no difference whether you were a store clerk or a big shot - the former might have been preferred. Knowing people so well, she always matched her love of gift giving with what would bring each person joy.

Family was her life. She grew up among extended family in places like Charlotte, Spartanburg, Florence, Galivants Ferry and Myrtle Beach. She spent summers in Myrtle Beach, with dozens of cousins, when it was a small town and the cousins could walk to the Krispy Kreme and play on the beach. With her own family, she duplicated that close family experience. Whether it was school, dance recitals or weddings, she was in the middle of it. Her legacy is her three daughters, who with their husbands and her nine grandchildren, all live within two blocks of each other in small-town-bicycle-riding-walk-to-the-ice-cream-shop Davidson, NC. It is these grandchildren who gave her the gift of being known as "Mommaday."

Emmaday's roots at the beach, her love of dance and the draw of family led Emmaday and Bill to establish a second home in North Myrtle Beach, SC. They danced in the shag clubs and went to the events until Emmaday's arthritis developed. Still she enjoyed sitting on the porch, talking with all those she loved, and watching the sunsets over the ocean (she didn't make many sunrises). Her beloved niece, Kim, was sitting on that porch thinking about and praying for her while watching one of those sunsets. She was unaware that was the moment of Emmaday's passing.

She is survived by her husband of 56 years, William Gordon Seymour (Bill), her daughters Emma Holliday Seymour Worsley (Holly), her husband Bill and their children Emma Holliday Collins (Hollins), William Edwards (Will), Nathan Campbell (Campbell) and Dillon Barrett (Dillon); Rebecca Jane Seymour Copeland (Jane), her husband Shawn, and their children Grace Anne Holliday (Grace Anne) and Gibson Honaker (Gibson); Shannon Collins Seymour Flippin and her husband Billy, and their children Hannah Holliday (Hannah), Samuel Seymour (Sam) and Jacob Joseph (Jake). She is also survived by her sister-in-law Anne Lallande Collins, her niece Kimball Collins Cotty, her brother-in-law Richard Gibson Seymour (Dick), his wife Karen and their family. She is also deeply loved by many nieces and nephews.
Assisting her over the last five years is her beloved Ricki Crowder, whom she referred to as her "mini-me."

Due to the pandemic, the immediate family will have a service which will be broadcast virtually at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, December 12th from Myers Park Presbyterian Church. The direct link is as follows: https://boxcast.tv/view/emmaday-seymour-funeral-914058 or myersparkpres.org.

A private burial will take place at the family plot at Old Bethesda Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Aberdeen, NC.

Memorials can be made to Hopeway Foundation 1717 Sharon Rd. West, Charlotte, NC 28210 (Hopeway.org), Myers Park Presbyterian Church (COVID Relief Fund) 2501 Oxford Pl., Charlotte, NC 28207 (Myersparkpres.org) or Converse College, 580 E. Main St., Spartanburg, SC 29302 (converse.edu).

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