PHS Little Theater to be renamed for Berlynne Holman

By Logan Watson

The late Berlynne Holman will soon be memorialized at Peabody High School.

The Trenton Special School District Board of Education voted unanimously to rename the Little Theater at PHS in honor of Holman, who was instrumental in the success of the Nite-Lite Theatre in Trenton and an ardent supporter of the arts.

Kathi Burriss, a Nite Lite supporter and friend of Holman, told the Board that she began working toward this goal before Holman passed away earlier this year, providing them with several letters in support of the memorial.

“I started this process four or five years ago before Berlynne died, and I didn’t follow through,” Burris said. “When this school was built, Berlynne was on the school board. She helped design the theatre. From a director’s standpoint, we have got the best theater in the county, bar none. Berlynne was very instrumental in that. When Nite Lite first formed, Berlynne was the first actor on the stage. She was involved in the community all her adult life. She was not a Peabody graduate, but that doesn’t mean that she didn’t love Peabody.”

Under the current policy, any part of the campus that is to be named must be named after a graduate of PHS, but the Board approved the motion as a special exception. In the coming months, plaques memorializing Holman will be installed near the doors of the Little Theater. Hopes are that the dedication will be completed in time for the first school play this fall.