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2023 Holly Ball debutantes named

The Holly Ball Committee recently announced the names of the young women who will be presented at the 127th Tidewater Foundation Holly Ball. This year’s ball will be held at Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club, Kilmarnock, on Dec. 28, beginning at 7 p.m.

The Holly Ball dates to 1895 and has been continuous in its running, with the exception of during World War I and World War II, as well as in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

John Armistead Palmer crowned the first queen at the Eubank Hotel in Kilmarnock while hosting a holiday party in 1895. It became the precursor of the Tidewater Assembly Holly Ball and the subsequent crowning of a queen in each year thereafter.

On Nov. 25, the debutante season commenced at Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club where the Holly Ball Committee hosted a coffee for this year’s debutantes and their mothers. Also present was reigning Queen Jessica Lynn Haynie of Reedville, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Haynie.

The queen addressed the...

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