The odds of finding a big rig trucker who has a fascination with dainty hummingbirds may be fairly slim, but Ollie Hollis of Columbus fills the bill. While nature lovers are celebrating the seasonal return of the flying jewels to Mississippi, Hollis kept company with her “birds” all winter long. That’s because her nearly 1,000 hummingbird collectibles stay put year-round. They are on teacups and wind chimes, wall art and wreaths, in stained glass and porcelain, jewelry boxes, music boxes and pill boxes. Ollie Hollis is captivated by these small creatures loaded with charisma.
“I just like the little tiny delicate things — they’re just so pretty,” says the former semi driver who has been collecting since the early 1990s. She sits on her screened patio, where a stiff afternoon breeze sets about 20 hummingbird-themed wind chimes to singing. The porch packed with plants looks out over a neatly-cut, expansive yard filled with paved garden paths, bordered beds, flowering bushes, hummingbird feeders and crimson cannas, some standing 7-feet tall or more. Hollis has been working outdoors all morning, she explains. That’s typical, when she is not at her full-time job at Advance Auto, or finishing furniture, making crafts or sewing.
“I’m never still,” she laughs. Some have likened her quiet energy to that of a hummingbird. The remarkable bird — with wings that beat 50 to 80 times per second and a heart that beats about 1,260 times per minute — always seems to be on the move.
Hitting the road
Hollis stayed on the move for about five years, seeing America from the cab of an 18-wheeler. From 2005 to 2010, she was half of a driving team with her husband, Carl. He is still an active trucker.
“I’d drive during the day, and he’d drive at night,” she says. “I’ve been to 48 states — I’ve only missed seeing Maine and Alaska.”
Hollis was accumulating hummingbirds before she went to school to learn how to handle 40-ton semis.
“Going on the road just made it easier to collect them,” she smiles. “I was picking up pieces here and there, everywhere we went.” She can still tell visitors where she acquired almost every keepsake.
Part of her collection came as gifts from family and friends. One of her earliest and most treasured pieces is a wall hanging given to her by her mother, who still lives in Washington state, where Hollis hails from.
“My mother collected owls,” Hollis says. “You think I have a lot of hummingbirds? She has a lot of owls!”
Another prized piece is a woodworked gift made by a nephew in Washington. It hangs in the “western room” at home, the room that reflects Carl’s appreciation of the cowboy life. The wall art depicts a running horse — and a hummingbird.
“My nephew made it himself, and it’s special because he adapted (the design) to combine what we like; he had to add the hummingbird,” Hollis says.
Margaret Owen has been Hollis’ close friend since about the time the collecting began.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Owen says. “She has so many pieces, I can’t remember them all.” She recalls Hollis’ pleasure when returning from travel with various pieces, like a tea set decorated with a delicate hummingbird motif.
“She’s the easiest person in the world to buy anything for — if it’s got a hummingbird on it, she loves it,” says Owen.
Nesting
For Hollis, there came a time when the highway held less appeal than home, where grandchildren were growing up. She now has 12.
“The whole reason I came off the road was because I have a big house and all these grandkids, and I wasn’t able to enjoy either one of them,” she explains.
Her husband is still gone much of the time, but the family has adapted. Growing up with a cattle rancher-turned-dairy farming father, Hollis picked up her strong work ethic early on. She can still outwork many folks, she says, “and I don’t slow down.”
“I’m very independent. Carl is only home a few times a year,” Hollis says. “I deal with whatever comes up. … And someday I’ll get somebody from Maine and Alaska to send me something with hummingbirds on it,” she adds with a grin.
Does she see an end to all this collecting?
“Not yet! That’s like putting flowers in the yard — I haven’t run out of places to put them.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Source: hummingbirdsociety.org; worldofhummingbirds.com
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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