Person:Stephen Thomas (15)

Stephen Thomas moved his family from Kentucky to Bloomington Illinois in about 1917. My grandmother Ida (Thomas) Sebring described herself as a 'babe in arms' when her parents made the move.

Grandma Ida's memory of the night her father died seemed very vivid, as she described it to me (Jerry D. Abshier, Ida's grandson) during my first visit to Bloomington, Illinois in October of 2002. He died at the house owned by his daughter and son-in-law, Leroy and Ida Sebring, at 820 1/2 West Oakland Avenue, in Bloomington Illinois (address listed on death certificate). Ida and Leroy Sebring were living in the 820 1/2 Oakland Street house at that time. They had been out to Ida's parents' (Stephen and Anna Thomas') house in Easton that evening, because Stephen had been feeling ill with severe stomache pain. Ida and Leroy convinced the Thomas' to come back to the Oakland Street house with them, because the three Sebring children were home alone, and Ida was not comfortable staying away from them for an extended time. Saint Joseph's Hospital was also located directly across the street from the Sebring's house on Oakland Street (at that time), so that may have been an additional consideration.

Everyone was bedded down for the night and Ida remembers hearing her dad get up to walk to the bathroom. She took this as a sign that he was feeling okay. The next thing she remembers was Leroy shaking her and telling her that her father had died. Later it was said that Stephen had suddenly sat straight up in bed, threw back the covers and said, "It's my heart!", just before collapsing. Ida ran across the street to see if there was anyone around at the hospital, but it was locked up and deserted. She also remembered that one of her siblings was staying in a camping trailer, parked in the woods across the street from the house, next to the hospital. She went and roused them, and she remembers how extremely foggy it was that fateful night.

Stephen Thomas is buried at East Lawn Cemetery, in Bloomington, Illinois (1002 Airport Road, 61704-2524; 309-662-1222). His brass headstone can be found in the "Memorial Lawn" section of the cemetery, plot #122.

1. ↑ Read and photographed by Jerry D. Abshier, June 2000. Thomas, Stephen Henry, Tombstone inscription.
2. ↑ Thomas, Stephen Henry, Death Certificate 18 October 1950.
3. ↑ Read and photographed by Jerry D. Abshier, June 2000. Thomas, Stephen Henry, Tombstone inscription.
4. ↑ Thomas, Stephen Henry, Death Certificate 18 October 1950.
5. ↑ Abshier, Jerry D., personal knowledge.

   Ida related that her father lived in Easton when he died in 1950, but his actual death occurred at the LeRoy and Ida Sebring home in Bloomington, where he and his wife were spending the night.

6. ↑ Thomas, Stephen Henry, Death Certificate 18 October 1950.