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Endesha Ida Mae Holland, former UB playwright
Endesha Ida Mae Holland rose from a life of squalor, abuse and prostitution to become a celebrated playwright and women's studies scholar.
The former UB faculty member and award-winning dramatist, whose play "From the Mississippi Delta" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988, died in her sleep on Jan. 25 in a Santa Monica, Calif., nursing home after a long battle with ataxia, a hereditary neurological disease. She was 61.
Holland taught in the UB Department of American Studies from 1985 to 1993, when she was recruited to the University of Southern California by Steven B. Sample, the USC president and former UB president. She was a playwright-in-residence at the USC School of Theatre and held the university's first joint appointment between the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (its Program in the Study of Women and Men in Society) and a professional school (the School of Theatre).
"From the Mississippi Delta" was a critically acclaimed, off-Broadway production that enjoyed a successful run and was later adapted into a memoir of the same name. She had at least six other plays performed.
Born into the Deep South racism of Greenwood, Miss., Holland wrote about her rape at the hands of her mother's white boss at the age of 11, and her subsequent fall into prostitution.
She inadvertently walked into the civil rights movement, following a successful-looking man, thinking he might be a customer. He turned out to be a visitor in town working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
She was arrested 13 times in subsequent years for "parading without a permit," and her mother died when her house was firebombed.
Holland eventually went on to the University of Minnesota, earning an undergraduate degree in African-American studies and master's and doctoral degrees in American studies.
She started teaching women's studies at UB in 1985, and almost immediately started recruiting students, many like herself. Many of them stayed with Holland in her Richmond Avenue house, and some brought their children as well.
Holland retired from USC as a professor emeritus in 2003 when her ataxia became too debilitating.
There will be no funeral services. Memorials are being planned for USC and Greenwood, where her remains will be buried near her mother.