Holt, Bertha Marian (1904–2000)

US adoption activist who, with her husband Harry Holt, founded the Holt International Children's Services, which has placed more than 50,000 orphans from around the world (including Korea, Latin and South America, Russia, and India) in US homes. Known to these children as ‘Grandma Holt’, her many honours include Mother of the Year (1966) and Woman of the Year (1973). She wrote Seed from the East, Created For God's Glory and Bring My Sons from Afar about her experiences.

She was born in Des Moines, Iowa. Along with her husband (d. 1964), who had served in the US Army in Korea, Holt sought special legislation from the US Congress to enable them to add eight Korean orphans to their family of six children in 1955.