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1926 - 2020 (94 years)
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Name |
Roy Richard Thomas |
Born |
1926 |
Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, USA |
Gender |
Male |
Resided |
1941 |
Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S.A. |
Attended Redford High School 1941-1945 |
Resided |
Summer, 1953 |
Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. USA |
Medical Service Corps Officer Course |
Resided |
1962 |
Pueblo, Colorado, USA |
Resided |
1965 |
Monte Vista, Colorado, USA |
Resided |
1975 |
Rockville, Montgomery, Maryland, USA |
631 Crocus Drive |
Resided |
1979 |
Potomac, Montgomery, Maryland |
Resided |
1987 |
Bethesda, Montgomery, Maryland |
Resided |
2019 |
Knoxville, Knox, Tennessee |
Died |
22 Nov 2020 |
Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, U.S.A. |
Person ID |
I1926 |
Complete |
Last Modified |
1 Dec 2020 |
Father |
Roy Elmer Thomas, b. 27 Sep 1898, Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, USA , d. 4 Feb 1982, Hospice of Southern Michigan, Southfield, Oakland County, Michigan, U.S.A. (Age 83 years) |
Mother |
Iva Florence Deal, b. 13 Oct 1899, Brazil, Clay County, Indiana, USA , d. 3 Apr 1982, Botsford General Hospital, Farmington Hills, Oakland County, Michigan, U.S.A. (Age 82 years) |
Married |
2 Aug 1921 |
Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, U.S.A. |
Family ID |
F5779 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Family |
Carol Jean Wehrwein, b. 28 Mar 1929, Plymouth, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, U.S.A , d. 25 Mar 2017, Lakeside Terrace Condominium, Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, U.S.A. (Age 87 years) |
Married |
9 Sep 1950 |
Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S.A. |
- Michigan Marriages, 1867-1952: "Roy Richard Thomas, age 23 b. Indianapolis, IN, father: Roy Elmer Thomas mother: Iva Florence Deal, resides: Lakeland, Polk County, FL, & Carol Jean Wehrwein, age 21 b. Plymouth, WI, father: Carl Frederick Wehrwein mother: Jennie Leona Wensink, resides: :akeland, Polk County, FL; m. 9 Sep 1950 Detroit, Wayne County."
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Notes |
- Carol has no brothers and sisters and her mother did not drive. Therefore, when Carol's father suffered a fatal heart attack in Dec 1967, Carol needed to be closer to northern Virginia where Jennie Wehrwein lived. In the summer of 1968, the family moved from Colorado to Maryland.
Roy Richard Thomas
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Children |
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Photos
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| Thomas Family gathering honoring Roy and Carol (2006)
"Had a great time last weekend w/ mini family reunion. Russ was here on b'ness, and Sue decided to drive up from Tennessee to join the fun. Thus, rare opportunity for all six of us to be in one place at the same time, along w/ some of the spouses and kids. Sue, Steve, Russ, and I took advantage of the event to celebrate Dad's 80th B-day (1 Dec) and Mom and Dad's 56th wedding anniversary (9 Sept) by SURPRISING THEM w/ a written tribute thanking them for being our parents."
Robert Carroll Thomas Fall 2006 |
| Roy and Carol Thomas, 56th Wedding Anniversary (2006)
L to R: Steven, Carol, Susan, Roy, Robert, Russell in a Greek restaurant, Bethesda, Montgomery County, MD 20817 |
| At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
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| Thomas Family Meets the Howards, Cross Keys, Baltimore, MD
December 2008
l to r: Susan Treadway - Dave Howard - Bob Thomas - Roy Richard Thomas - Susan Howard - Steven Thomas |
Last Modified |
10 Nov 2020 |
Family ID |
F47 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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Event Map |
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| Born - 1926 - Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, USA |
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| Resided - Attended Redford High School 1941-1945 - 1941 - Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S.A. |
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| Married - 9 Sep 1950 - Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S.A. |
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| Resided - Medical Service Corps Officer Course - Summer, 1953 - Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. USA |
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| Resided - 1962 - Pueblo, Colorado, USA |
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| Resided - 1965 - Monte Vista, Colorado, USA |
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| Resided - 631 Crocus Drive - 1975 - Rockville, Montgomery, Maryland, USA |
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| Died - 22 Nov 2020 - Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, U.S.A. |
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Pin Legend |
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set |
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Photos
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| Roy Richard Thomas Won Healthy Looking Child Contest
The Indianapolis News and W.H. Roberts Co., a dairy, held a contest for toddlers for the purpose of advertising "Roberts Nursury Milk -- Nature's Finest Food." Those with "round, chubby faces!" appeared June 26, 1930, in the newspaper and later in a Roberts Co. ad in the Indianapolis News.
Roy drank a quart of cow's milk every day, until he discovered soy milk. |
| Roy Richard Thomas - Better Baby Contest Winner
State Fair Better Babies Contest, Indianapolis Star ads 31 Aug 1929 and 26 June 1930 |
| L.S. Ayres Department Store, Indianapolis, Marion, IN
Roy Richard Thomas recalled that his father, Roy Elmer Thomas, in 1931-1932 would occasionally drive downtown to the Ayres Department Store. There would never be a place to park, so Iva Florence Thomas would be dropped off at the store's entrance. While mother was shopping, father and son would drive to the railroad switching yard, park, and watch the freight cars and steam locomotives. At the appointed time, they would return to Ayres, where mother would be waiting at the curb. |
| Railroad classification yard, Indianapolis, Marion, IN
Roy Richard Thomas always looked forward to his mother's shopping downtown, for that meant that he and his father would park for an hour or so and watch the freight cars roll down the incline to join their respective trains. |
| Ora Albert Thomas's Tavern
Roy Richard Thomas recalled, about 1933 "Uncle Orie" owned a neighborhood bar in Indianapolis, Marion, IN |
| Redford High School, Grand River Avenue at Six Mile Road, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Roy Richard Thomas, along with about 4,000 other students, attended this high school, 1941-1945. The section of the building with gray cement-colored facade was relatively new in 1941. It connected two older brick buildings.
The school was so crowded that the school day and the student body were divided into two parts: the juniors and seniors started their day at 8:00 AM and the freshmen and sophomores began their classes at 4:30 PM, after the others had left. |
| Free Press Building, 321 West Lafayette Street, Detroit, MI
Roy Richard Thomas worked in this building from August 1943 through April 1945 in the Sports Department of the "Detroit Free Press," a morning newspaper. |
| Cass Theater, Detroit MI
The Cass Theatre was one of two in downtown Detroit, which featured touring stage plays. It was located across the street from the "Free Press" building. Roy Ricard Thomas attended a number of plays there.
See: https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/cass-theatre |
| Poster for the play, "Othello," featuring Paul Robeson, 1944
Roy Richard Thomas attended this "Othello" performance, featuring Paul Robeson, on October 16, 1944. The Cass Theater was across the street from the Detroit Free Press building where Roy worked in the Sports Department. |
| Roy R. Thomas from Sports Dept. to U.S. Army
Roy Richard Thomas worked at the downtown office of the newspaper about forty hours per week (Tue thru Fri, noon-8:00 PM, Sat 4:00 PM-1:00 AM) during his junior and senior years of high school, which he attended 8:00-11:30 AM. He then hopped on the street car in front of the high school and rode downtown to within a couple of blocks of the newspaper office.
(During his freshman and sophomore years, he had worked at his father's Redford Home Bakery, on Grand River Avenue a half block from the high school.)
At the newspaper, Roy along with George Puscas, was responsible for marking up the daily sports results, compiling baseball standings, and the like. Puscas worked at the Free Press for sixty-five years, including many as Sports Editor. Roy did not return to the Free Press when he left the Army in December 1946. |
| General MacArthur leaving his headquarters, Tokyo, Japan (1945)
Roy Richard Thomas completed nineteen weeks of basic and advanced infantry training at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Little Rock, AK in August 1945, just as Japan surendered. The normal course was eighteen weeks, but Roy was transfered from a rifle company to a mortar company when the Army discovered that he had very little sight in his right eye and could not see the target!
He arrived in Yokohoma, Japan in October, and was sent by train as a replacement to a field artillery battalion to northern Japan, where he spent his entire tour of duty. He never saw Tokyo or General MacArthur. He did wonder why the Japanese built their towns so far from their railroad stations, but then realized that the area near the stations had burned to the ground after air raids.
Even though the peace treaty had been signed, the Army mounted armed patrols with live ammunition for the first two months. When it became obvious that the occupation would be peaceful, the live ammunition was collected and stored in a bunker on post.
Even though Roy was assigned to an artillery unit, he never learned to fire a cannon or saw a cannon fired. Most of his time was spent in administrative work in rural Japan. |
| Roy Richard Thomas, Japan U.S. Army barracks 1946
This photo shows a typical barracks, but wooden ladders had been added as fire escapes.
The American soldiers were billeted in two-story Japanese schools, which were made entirely of wood. In the first few months of the occupation, units oiled the wooden floors to improve their appearance. When these wooden buildings burned,the fire spread quickly in part because of the oiled floors.
When his barracks caught fire in the middle of the night, Roy Richard Thomas was awakened by another soldier who was on his way to a window. There was no light except for the flames and the room was filled with smoke. Roy sleepily followed that soldier, climbed out the window, and fell two stories to the ground. Then both crossed the closed quadrangle and, with the help of already those inside, climbed into a window of a part of the structure not yet engulfed in flames, and exited to safety. Six died in the conflagration, including two who slept a few beds away from Roy Richard Thomas.
The rather primitive Japanese x-ray equipment at this remote base did not reveal any fractures, so Roy returned to duty in a week.
Only some months later, when he was examined by American x-ray equipment at division headquarters in Sendai, was it discovered that he had fractured both ankles in the fall.
It was the only jump, and that one without a parachute, that he made while assigned to the 11th Airborne Division. |
| Roy Richard Thomas Christmas card 1945
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| Roy Richard Thomas Yonezawa, Japan (summer, 1946)
Typical farm and laborer amid rice paddies in this area of northern Japan, near the Sea of Japan.
Roy Richard Thomas took this photo while mounted on horseback. He used his father's Kodak camera from World War I. |
| Roy Richard Thomas Yonezawa, Japan (summer 1946 p. 1)
This rural area in northern Japan had no sanitary sewer system in 1945.
Privies/outhouses were serviced by men with large buckets, who dumped the contents into these large containers on the cart, for transport to the fields and use as fertilizer. |
| Roy Richard Thomas Yonezawa, Japan (summer 1946 p. 2)
A sanitation worker paused on his rounds in rural northern Japan. |
| Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida
See the Album of photos taken by Roy when he was a student at Florida Southern College. The link is further down on this page. |
| Bartow, Polk, FL bouganvillea (1951)
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| Bartow, Polk, FL amaryllis (1952)
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| San Antonio, Texas: garden behind the Alamo (1953)
Picture taken while attending the Medical Service Corps Officer Course, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston |
| San Antonio, TX river walk downtown (1953)
Picture taken while attending the Medical Service Corps Officer Course, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston |
| President Harry Truman throws the first pitch (1955)
On May 24, 1955, Roy Richard Thomas was staying at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado while attending a meeting at the hotel of GMAC employees from the Pueblo & Denver & Cheyenne, Wyoming offices.
Former President Truman made a grand entrance into the multi-storied atrium lobby, while members of the hotel staff and guests lined the balconies of the several floors. President Truman strode briskly into the lobby, smiled broadly, and waved to all present, who clapped loudly. This warm reception and his response were typical of his interaction with the common man and woman.
Truman had come to Denver to attend a dinner ($25 a plate) to raise funds for the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.
While this photo was taken at the opening of the baseball season in 1955, it does show the presidential smile and his bond with the people in the stands.
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| Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colorado
Atrium Lobby, showing balconies from which hotel staff and guests, including Roy Richard Thomas, greeted in 1955 former President Harry Truman. |
| Salida, Co Panorama (Historic Post Card)
Looking across the Arkansas river and beyond Denver & Rio Grande Railroad yards & Depot |
| Colorado Springs, CO: U.S. Air Force Academy, Chapel (1962)
While living in Pueblo, CO, the Thomas family often visited the Air Force Academy. Roy pointed out to the four children the financial advantages of attending a service academy. Robert entered the ROTC program at James Madison University and retired from the U.S. Army after twenty years. Susan did the next best thing and married a ROTC student, who ultimately retired from the U.S. Army. |
| Colorado Springs, CO U.S. Air Force Academy, Chapel sunset (1962)
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| Thomas Family home in winter, Monte Vista, CO
The San Luis Valley, population about 45,000, elevation 7500 feet, is a high mountain desert environment that has about the same amount of annual precipitation as the Sahara in Africa. Most snow falls on the mountains, especially on the western slopes. |
| Roy R. & Carol J. Thomas home Monte Vista CO
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| Roy R. & Carol J. Thomas home, Monte Vista CO
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| Roy R. Thomas & Susan R. Thomas
This photo was taken in the living room of the Thomas home in Monte Vista, CO. |
| Abandoned mine tailings, upstream from Creede, CO
This close up photo, taken by Roy Richard Thomas, shows the colorful but contaminated soil in a creek that ran through an area of abandoned mines. |
| Rockville, Montgomery County, MD 631 Crocus Drive (1975)
Carol had no brothers and sisters and her mother did not drive. Therefore, when Carol's father suffered a fatal heart attack in December 1967, Carol wanted to be closer to northern Virginia where Jennie Wehrwein lived. In the summer of 1968, the Thomas family moved from Colorado to Maryland. The family lived at 631 Crocus Drive until the three boys finished high school. In 1979, Roy and Carol sold 631 Crocus Drive and bought 9116 Falls Chapel Way, Potomac, Montgomery, MD. |
| Rockville, Montgomery, MD 631 Crocus Drive garden (1975)
The garden with an Asian theme and its "dry stream bed" were in the rear yard when Roy and Carol purchased the property in December 1973. Roy enjoyed maintaining and enlarging the garden over the years. |
| Roy Richard Thomas, Bibliographer and Manuscript Librarian for the Library of Congress, Washington, DC
As a part of the Library's Bicentennial projects in the early 1970's, Roy studied and wrote annotations for some 900 books for "Revolutionary America, 1763-1789" (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1984, 2 v., 1671 pp.). The green binders in several book cases behind him ultimately contained one page for each of the 14,810 entries in this definitive bibliography.
Reviewer Bernard Freidman, Indiana University-Indianapolis wrote:
". . . Finally, the compiler is to be congratulated on the restraint shown in the annotations accompanying about 40 percent of the entries. . . . Gephart’s annotations are scrupulously objective in describing the contents or point of view of an article or book. . . ." ["Indiana Magazine of History," (Bloomington: History Dept, Indiana Univ.), v. 81 No. 1 (March 1985), pp. 77-78.]
The bibliography may be viewed at this link:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510005485911&view=1up&seq=4
The following year, Roy transferred to the Manuscript Division and arranged the nearly one thousand box collection of Josephus Daniels, who was Secretary of the Navy, 1913-1921, under Woodrow Wilson and Ambassador to Mexico before World War II under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The guide may be viewed at this link:
http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2010/ms010320.pdf
Roy in 1972 presented at the annual convention of the Organization of American Historians at a session about manuscript sources for women's history, which is described at this link:
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197311_burstyn.pdf |
| Roy Richard Thomas
In July 1977, Roy Richard Thomas left the Library of Congress and began a career as a real estate salesman in Montgomery County, Maryland. He used this photograph, taken by Steven Richard Thomas, for advertising purposes during his thirty-two years in residential real estate. |
| Roy Richard Thomas (1926- )
Camelot Hall, Arlington, Virginia 1988 |
| Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Alexandria VA
Carol and Roy Thomas have enjoyed the performance of various chamber groups since her retirement in 1999. They have become benefactors of many of these performing groups. |
| Roy Thomas honored by family for his family history work. (2006)
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| At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
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| At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
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| Carol Jean and Roy Richard Thomas, 56th Wedding anniversary (2006)
Carol and Roy are holding, at a Greek restaurant, Bethesda, Montgomery, MD, framed tributes written by their four children.
MEMORIES OF CAROL JEAN WEHRWEIN THOMAS BY LISA HOLLINGSWORTH
"We have known Carol and Roy for almost twenty years and consider you extended family. Roy, you were our dedicated and devoted Realtor from 1993- 2007. You tirelessly worked with us in our many stages of transition from Harpers Ferry, WV to Gaithersburg, Derwood, back to Gaithersburg and finally Potomac, where we currently continue to reside happily. Through it all, we strived to achieve and work hard to get into the best neighborhood possible and persevered with all due thanks and credit to Roy's unwavering patience and determination to find us our happy home. We are deeply and forever grateful for all you have done for our family."
Throughout the years, I always marveled at Roy's love and devotion to Carol and her reciprocation to him. In her final hours, I expressed to her that she had chosen the finest husband and that she was so loved by family, students and many others. I hope and pray she heard me, but I am certain she knew this regardless. |
| Roy Richard Thomas 81st Birthday (2007)
Roy and Carol Thomas |
| Roy Richard Thomas 81st Birthday (2007)
Roy and Carol Standing |
| Roy Richard & Carol J. Thomas & Susan R. Treadway Aug 2008
We spent four days and three nights in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. We were particularly interested in the Main Street of Harrisonburg, VA, for it is likely that members of the Deal family traversed that route, the "Great Wagon Road," before the American Revolution on their way from Pennsylvania to the Catawba River area of North Carolina.
We visited two museums on Main Street in the historical district. The Quilt Museum, located in a private home built in 1856, had an interesting examples of nineteenth century needlework. The Higgins-Hardesty House, built ca. 1850, had several displays devoted to the history of the "Great Wagon Road," which became the Valley Turnpike in the nineteenth century, and Main Street, U.S. Route 11, in the twentieth century. |
| Handel's "Alexander's Feast," performed by The Bach Sinfonia of Silver spring, MD and The Handel Choir of Baltimore
Carol and Roy Thomas introduced the directors of these two groups, who then collaborated first in a performance of "Alexander's Feast" in Washington, D.C at a national convention of musicologists and later in the recording of the CD at another venue. |
| Postcard announcing the concert, "Courtly Splender: Music for Royal Occasions, 25 March 2007
"Courtly Splender" presented by the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and Baltimore Baroque Band, Pro Musica Rara, and The Handel Choir of Baltimore at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, and underwritten by Roy & Carol Thomas. |
| Program booklet for "Magnificat and Masterworks," 30 September 2007
A concert presented by three ensembles, The Bach Sinfonia, The Washington Kantorei, and Carmina at the National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.
"This program was made possible by a generous grant from The Roy & Carol Thomas Fund for the Arts. The Bach Sinfonia, Carmina, and The Washington Kantorei wish to acknowledge not only the significant gift received for this program, but also the many years of support from Mr. & Mrs. Thomas. This is the second of three concerts in 2007 underwritten by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas and intended to introduce eight performing ensembles to new audiences in the Baltimore and Washington areas. It is individuals like Roy & Carol Thomas who continue to sustain the arts in our communities." |
| Invitation to a reception at the German Embassy, 16 May 2007
The Cultural Attache, who arranged musical performances at the Embassy by The Washington Kantorei, The Beethoven Society, and other organizations, was bid farewell upon her retirement and return to Germany.
The photograph shows the Attache and her husband at ease during one of their travels in the United States. |
Albums |
| Florida Southern College (11) Photos taken by Roy Richard Thomas of this beautiful campus in central Florida with buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This album includes a letter from Frank Lloyd Wright. There is also an article about the camera Roy used.
Check this link for more interesting information: Frank Lloyd Wright Center at Florida Southern |
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