Ollie Ovid Hamm of Tarboro died peacefully on Sunday, February 7, 2021, after a brief illness. Born in Essex on Nov. 3, 1930, and raised in Hollister, in Halifax County, he was the son of Sam Elec Hamm and Fannie Gunter Hamm. He was a devoted son who spent his childhood and young adulthood working with his father building barns and houses. An excellent student, Ovid graduated from Aurelian Springs High School and went to work for his father in construction and for Jack Crawley and then for T.R. Wollett in their sawmills.
In 1950, Ovid married Rachel Anderson of Ringwood. They started their family and lived in Hollister for 14 years. Deeply and quietly faithful, he was very active in the Hollister Methodist Church, where he was Sunday School Superintendent and held numerous leadership roles. After moving his family to Tarboro in 1964, Ovid worked for more than 50 years at People’s Building Supply in Rocky Mount, where he made many, many friends. An accomplished woodworker and craftsman, he loved to solve problems and could build and fix anything. He had boundless intellectual curiosity and an excellent memory. For his 85th birthday celebration, he drew a detailed map of the Hollister of his childhood, with every house and building labelled by resident or business.
Music was always essential for Ovid’s happiness. After his brother taught him to play the guitar, he began at age eight to play with a group of local musicians who played for community square dances. He gravitated from the guitar to the mandolin. With a beautiful tenor voice, he often sang at church homecomings and special events with his equally talented brother and sister, who played the guitar and the autoharp. Sunday meals at his parents’ home in Hollister were followed by the siblings playing and singing while the grownups dozed and talked and the children played in the yard.
In his earlier years, he performed in community theatre and sang with the community chorus in Rocky Mount and Tarboro and with a barbershop quartet in Rocky Mount.
He was much in demand as a performer at Enfield events and for family gatherings. Thanksgiving was not Thanksgiving until Ovid had entertained everyone with many songs, from old country and bluegrass standards to favorite hymns. Until the Covid epidemic began, he performed monthly at Spring Arbor in Rocky Mount and intermittently at local churches and events. A week before he died, he picked up his mandolin and played songs just for himself. He watched “Song of the Mountains” on PBS every Saturday night. On the day that he died, a book of American song lyrics was on the table beside his chair.
More than anything in his life, Ovid loved his family. His pride in his wife, children, and grandchildren was always quietly evident. His greatest pleasure in life was getting together with his children and grandchildren, his sister, his nieces and nephews, and all cousins and kin on both sides of the family. He made an indelible impression on all who met him. Loved by all who knew him, he was humble, understanding, patient, and, most of all, kind.
Ovid is survived by his wife, Rachel, of the home; two daughters, Jennifer Hamm Langley, of Macclesfield, and Daphne Hamm O’Brien, of Whitakers; and a son, Charles Brinkley Hamm and wife Denise, of Wake Forest. Two of his beloved children died before him: Marshall Ovid Hamm in 1965 and Rachel Anderson House in 2019.
He is also survived by four grandchildren and their families: Jonathan Crisp Langley and wife Emily, with their children Ava Marie, Kinsley Grace, Connor Ovid, and Ezra Cole, of Irmo, South Carolina; Emily Langley Taylor and husband Mike, with their children Mackenzie Lane and Maddox Reyd, of Concord; Anderson Draughon O’Brien and wife Haley, of Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Rachel Rebecca House and partner Jonathan Whitfield, with their daughter Lilah Gray Whitfield, of Macclesfield; Nate Margets of Raleigh; and Amanda Margets, with her daughter, Vivian, of New York. Ovid is also survived by a sister, Charlotte Hamm Moseley, of Vaughn.
Memorials may be made to the Hollister United Methodist Church Cemetery Association, c/o Bob Arrington, 585 Gibbs Ave., Hollister, NC 27844.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, a private graveside with family was held.
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