Obit: Thomas, Emma (1879 - 1961)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Thomas, Brooke, Trindal, McGrew, Schierbaum

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) January 26, 1961

Thomas, Emma (22 July 1879 - 13 January 1961)

Memorial services were held at the Simmons Chapel in Kansas City, Kans. Tuesday for Mrs. L. N. (Emma) Thomas, mother of Mrs. William Trindal of Loyal.  Dr. W. L. McGrew of Emerson Park Christian Church officiated and interment was in the Maple Hill Cemetery, Kansas City.

Mrs. Thomas, a frequent visitor at Loyal, died January 13 at her home.  She was born Margaret Emma Brooke on July 22, 1879, in Kansas.  That state had been admitted to the Union only 18 years previously, and those years were marked with almost continual warfare with Indians, over slavery and with the south in the Civil War.  One of 10 children in a family striving to make a home against incredible odds, hardship became second nature and Mrs. Thomas learned early in life to derive happiness from the simple things.

To those in the area who knew her, she will be remembered best as an avid gardener and rock collector. Fro many years before physical disability prevented her active work, her gardens and lily ponds drew many visitors. Few who called left without a cutting form one of her favorite flowers, or a rock from her collection.

She is survived by her husband, whom she married in 1902 in Lansing, Kans.; two brothers, Bert and Tom; a son Ernest; two daughters, Mrs. Russell (Lucille) Schierbaum, all living in Kansas, and Mrs. William (Dorothie) Trindal of Loyal. Also eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren survive.