Estelle M. Holcombe, local business woman of Solway Community in Knox County, died June 3 at Tennova Residential Hospice in Halls.

Born Oct. 20, 1919, in Abbeville County, Abbeville, S.C., she was the daughter of the late George and Elliott Mundy. She moved to Columbia, S.C., at an early age and attended Columbia Community College.

She married in 1937 to her late husband, Jolly B. (Sam) Holcombe Sr., who she accompanied to Oak Ridge in 1943. During the 1940s and 1950s, she was well-known in the Oak Ridge area as the Avon Lady. She and her husband opened Solway Hardware in 1955, where they worked up to their retirement in 1968. [Read more…]