Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) an outstanding example of its kind.

1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 577: golly-buster, n. A very large specimen. ‘Look at that fish: ain’t it a golly-buster’.
1939		T.J. Farr ‘The Language of the Tennessee Mountain Regions’ in AS XIV:2 90: The fish which Sam caught was a golly whopper.
1948		J.T. Hazard Our Living Forests 178: Again it comes from Leonard: ‘Nearly stepped on a big black gollywhopper of a huggin’ bear’.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 248: I fixed me up a gollywhopper of a speech.