June 30, 1936 — October 17, 2025
On Friday, October 17, 2025, Gerald Edwin Thomas, age 89, passed away peacefully in his assisted living care facility, Hopkins Court, in Sulphur Springs, Tx with his daughter by his side.
Gerald was born on June 30, 1936, in DeQueen, Arkansas to Reed and Belle Thomas. He was a proud graduate of the University of Arkansas and spent many years taking his family to all the Razorback football games.
Mr. Thomas followed in the footsteps of his father when he opened Thomas Spreading Service on Gilmer Street in the late 1960s. He and his wife Janice ran the business and considered the farmers of Hopkins County their family. Gerald also dabbled in the cattle business, raising several hundred head of Brangus and Angus cattle. He shared this adventure with his children who loved to feed the baby calves and help with driving the tractors during the hay season.
In the late 1980s Mr. Thomas closed the business on Gilmer St. and opened a successful interior design shop, Interior Resources, in Texarkana, Tx. This time Janice took the lead, and Gerald became the behind-the-scenes support by installing shutters, curtains, moving carpets and fabrics. Again, they were very successful in their new adventure and met many people, some of whom became lifelong friends.
Gerald was preceded in death by his parents, Reed and Belle Godwin Thomas, his wife, Janice Nichols Thomas, and his son Jason Nichols Thomas. He is survived by his daughter, Angela Gae Campbell and her husband Matthew, two sisters, Sandra Dunn and Carolyn Stovall, daughter in law, Michelle V. Thomas, five grandchildren: Sarah Kate DeLee and her husband Caleb DeLee, John Thomas Campbell and his wife Megan Campbell, Pryor Nichols Thomas and his wife Aubrey Cates-Parr Thomas, Clayton Reed Thomas and Charlotte Lillian Thomas and four great granddaughters Lilah Wren DeLee, Mila Jay DeLee, Vivian Kate Campbell and Josephine Tyler Campbell.
We would like to give a sincere thank you to the staff at Hopkins Court Assisted Living Center, Amatus Health Care, Carriage House Manor’s Hilltop Nursing and Rehabilitation Team and Michelle Eley at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital in Sulphur Springs. These people were extremely kind and caring during the final season of Mr. Thomas’s life.
Mr. Thomas will be laid to rest in Mt Ida Cemetery, in DeQueen, Arkansas. Memorial donations can be sent to the Navy SEAL Foundation or the Tunnels to Towers Foundation. The family asks for those who knew Mr. Thomas to please take a minute to hug your children or grandchildren or family members and tell them you love them. Life goes by too fast and there is never enough time to spend with family.
