Person:Rex Thomas (1)

Name	Rex William Thomas, Sr.
Gender	Male
Birth`^?`	22 Nov 1905	Huntington, Indiana, United States
Marriage	12 Aug 1950	Raymond, Alberta, Canadato Nova Rose O'Brien
Death`^?`	2 Feb 1985	Huntsville, Madison, Arkansas, United States
Burial`^?`	Feb 1985	Huntsville, Madison, Arkansas, United States

              SHORT HISTORY of REX WILLIAM THOMAS, SR.

 Rex was born in Huntington Co., Indiana. He worked in the oil fields as a boy. Formerly owned his own garage and restaurant. When he lost those in an acrimonious divorce with Viola Fulks, Pam's mom, he went to work and to night school.
 He went to work as a pipe-fitter one day for the Fluor Corporation, and the next day was made foreman. He was a foreman and later superintendent for them until his retirement. During the late Fifties he helped build oil pipelines in Saudi Arabia. In 1967-68 he traveled to the Netherlands and lived in Den Haag for a year with his family, while superintending a project on the "Hook of Holland." 
 Rex married Nova Rose O'Brien on 12 August 1950 in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, her hometown.

 Rex and Nova were parents of 4 sons:

 1) Clayton O'Brien Thomas, born 10 July 1951, Raymond, Alberta, Canada. Married Cinda Christine Richesin on 29 December 1972 in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Children: Joshua Michael Thomas, 27 March 1974; David Richesin Thomas, 26 February 1977; James Clayton Thomas, 18 July 1981; and Eleanor Carolyn Thomas, 18 October 1982.)

 2) Mark O'Brien Thomas, stillborn 6 July 1952, Raymond, Alberta, Canada. Buried July 1952, Temple Hill Cemetery, Raymond, Alberta, Canada.

 3) Rex William Thomas, Jr., born 13 February 1954, Chillicothe, Ross Co., Ohio. Married 1) Darla Marie Krug on 1 November 1979 in Jay, Delaware County, Oklahoma. Divorced 1 May 1981, Fayetteville, Arkansas; 2) Sandra Lee Boyd on 1 November 1982 in Huntsville, Arkansas. (Children: Amanda Marie Thomas, 1 February 1984 and Aaron O'Brien Thomas, 3 August 1985.) Divorced 5 December 2000, Fayetteville, Tennessee. 3) Brenda Lee on 16 March 2002 in Manti, Sanpete County, Utah.

 4) John O'Brien Thomas, born 7 November 1955, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. Married Marlene Ann Evans on 12 February 1978 in Pettigrew, Madison County, Arkansas. (Children: Tessa Nicole Thomas Peterson, 26November 1978 and John Patrick "John John" Thomas, 21 May 1980.) Marlene died on 12 September 1984 in Tulsa, Oklahoma from head injuries sustained in a car wreck near her home in Benton County. She is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery south of Pettigrew, Arkansas. John died on 7 January 2005 in Denver, Colorado from liver failure. He was cremated, and his ashes were buried with Marlene in Pine Grove Cemetery. south of Pettigrew.

 Rex was a pipe-fitter, construction foreman, and superintendent for Fluor International. Retired from Fluor Corporation. Relocated his family to a farm on Bohannon Mountain in 1959. Farmer and cattleman. Member, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Huntsville Branch. Helped establish Fayetteville Branch. Adoptive father of Rex David Thomas, founder of Wendy's Old-Fashioned Hamburgers.

 Rex died on 2 February 1985 in Huntsville, Arkansas.

He is buried in the northeast section of the Huntsville Cemetery and SSW Nova.

Personal notes - Dad played his cards pretty close to his vest, and you had to drag information out of him with a tractor except on the rare occasion he'd reminisce a snippet. After Mom died without much personal history left behind I bought a tape recorder and tried to interview him...but I wasn't much of an interviewer, and he wasn't much of an interviewee!

I do have a few blurbs he offered on occasion. He told us he'd had to go to work in the oilfields as a boy. I believe his formal education only went to fifth grade, but he read heavily and studied while I was growing up. His spelling was a bit shaky, but he could reason as well as any man, and he had a mind like a steel trap. He had a wry sense of humor and was pretty salty with menfolk.
He said the oilfields were dangerous, and he witnessed a man hauling nitroglycerine by wagon get blown up along with his wagon. Apparently, Grandma was not too pleased with Grandpa over that one. The men lived in a work barracks. Some guy nailed Dad's workboots to the floor and thought that was just the funniest thing - until Dad returned the favor but crawled under the foundation and clinched the nails off!
His little brother, Max, jumped off a roof onto a rusty nail and got "lockjaw." He died a slow, agonizing death. As an emergency nurse I know dying from tetanus would be so even today, but MUCH worse back then! Dad never really said much about it, but I know that had to deeply traumatize the whole family, including him.
Dad was a Golden Gloves boxing champ as a young man. He was a pretty tough old nut. I don't believe many men wanted to try him on throughout his life. (Except ME, and by the time I was old enough, he was TOO old!) I always viewed him as a sort of cross between God and John Wayne. He never lost it. Even as an old guy with one leg (due to diabetes)he would strap on his artificial leg, climb on the tractor and put in a full farmday of work. He WAS a workaholic. Well, I'd say more he LOVED to work. He would be going sun-up to sundown...and often through the evening. He was a master mechanic and could do about anything. Sure wish I'd tried to learn more from him. One thing I DID learn was to enjoy hard work.
Now, I'll tell a story on him: remember, he's a larger-than-life guy. He had a bulldozer he bought to clear off the hillside. We're under there working on the treads, and, unlike a NORMAL guy who smashes his thumb with a hammer, he smashes HIS with a sledge-hammer! It just struck me funny, and I busted out laughing. He gave me the evil eye and started cussing. "You think it's FUNNY?! Come BACK here!" But I was GONE on afterburners! No way was I gettin' under there with him and that sledgehammer!
Talking about his wry sense of humor, I had experienced my FIRST drunk, and it was a dandy! Homemade wine Jimmy Basler made from Welch's Grape Juice Concentrate. I drank a bunch of water and was three sheets again. Me and Doug Frost rode in the back of the pickup over to Fayetteville and back, and I told him I was afraid I'd never get back to normal! Anyhow, Dad said absolutely nothing to me or anybody. We dropped Doug off at home. Then, when we got back to the farm, Dad told me he needed me to milk the cow in the barn. Now, this cow had lost a calf or something, and we didn't have a milking machine. I had NEVER milked a cow by hand. The barn the cow's in is an old converted chicken house with a tin roof. It is a HOT day outside, even hotter and closer INSIDE, and especially leaning against that hot, smelly cow. I tried to beg off, but Dad put it on the cow. "I need you to do this. That cow HAS to be milked!" So I did...but it warn't no fun! And he never said a word! Me neither!
Yeah, tough, but he did have ONE fear: he was deathly afraid of snakes! One day he and I are fixing fence up the hill along the road. Right at the top as you start to come down the hill there's a steep, deep hollow that falls off from the east side of the road and down to one of our ponds. Cows are about half billy-goats when they see someplace they can possibly get out, and there's one small sandy shelf, shoulder-height below the road level, where one fence post is a vital component of the fence preventing mass bovine delinquency. So he and I are down there together working on the fence. Suddenly, he sees a snake by his foot. Boys and girls, I don't recall if this is AFTER he's got a wooden leg, but I swear he LEVITATED up to that road! I came up pretty quick, too, but not magically like him. And I had another pretty good belly-laugh out of that one.
Sometimes Dad would go out of state on a job for an extended period but leave Mom and us to keep the farm up. I know that was quite a struggle for Mom to have to run things, especially because our work-ethic was still in its infancy, and playing was the preferred default. She had to drive us quite often, and we weren't much more cooperative than the stupid cows. Anyhow, we'd be out there doing something, and it'd start. We're hauling rocks and run into some black widows. Mom would be sweating, hair askew, and she'd declare, "I wish your Dad had these rocks right up his butt!" That'd elicit a group laugh. The truck would get stuck: "I wish your Dad had this truck right up his butt!" Hay mower broke? "I wish your Dad had this mower up his butt!" When the stress got very high, rarely, it might be, "I wish your Dad had this whole FARM right up his butt!" Boy, would we laugh!
Dad never knew though until after Mom died. We told him one time, and he kind of felt hurt, but we told him if he had half the things up his butt we'd heard, he'd be hurting a lot worse. Be in the Guinness Book!
He WAS soft when it came to my Mom. He sure did love her. After she died he would sometimes break down and cry and ask me why he had to keep living, when he wanted to be with her. I told him I didn't know except it wasn't his time. I know he was happy to join her about 4 1/2 years later.

Image Gallery

Rex, Clayton, and Nova, pregnant with Bill

(l. - r.) Gary Johnson, [John's stepson,] David Richesin Thomas, [Clayton's son,] Rex Dale Dawson [Aunt Edna's son,] Rex David Thomas [our half-brother (and Wendy's dad,)] John O'Brien Thomas, Rex William Thomas, Harry James Dawson [Aunt Edna's other son,] Clayton O'Brien Thomas, (crouching in front) Rex William "Bill" Thomas, Jr., (barely visible behind me) Tessa Nicole (Thomas) Peterson [John's daughter.]