Lucy George Thomas Booker -- Civic Leader, Historian and Genealogist

 

Lucy George Thomas Booker, civic leader, historian, genealogist and founding president of the Thomas-Bridges Association was born on June 23, 1912 in Christian County, Kentucky, the daughter of Thomas Marshall Thomas and Georgia Ella Wilkins.

In 1971, when the Thomas-Bridges Association was organized, Lucy George was elected president.  She immediately setup an operating organization, wrote by-laws and established other procedures. It was through her ability and enthusiasm for the preservation of family tradition and history of our two families, that made the Association what it is today.

A “doer and a joiner” of anything that helped to promote, preserve or advance causes of things historic, she was always willing to do and usually did more than her part towards seeing that the endeavor was a success.  Among the organizations which she had an avid and active interest, ones in which she often was the force, were the James K. Polk Memorial Association , member and former officer, Jane Knox chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution in Columbia, Tennessee and the James Thomas chapter, DAR, Cadiz, senior president of the President Polk Society, Children of the American Revolution, member, Captain James Madison Sparkman chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and member and former director of the Maury County, Tennessee chapter of APTA, a preservation organization.  She was also member of the Giles County, Tennessee and the Kentucky Historical societies, member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, member and past president of the Maury County Mental Health Association, and an associate of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.  In addition she was communicant of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church of Columbia, and secretary-treasurer of Episcopal Church Women.

Lucy’s genealogical research of the Booker family resulted in the “The Booker Family Papers”, consisting of three cubic feet, spanning the years 1950 through 1987. The collection is genealogical in nature, and is centered on Lucy’s research. Her primary interests were her family, the Thomas and Clark families of Christian and Trigg Counties, Kentucky, and Maury County, Tennessee, as well as inter-related families. The Thomas and Clark families were originally from North Carolina and settled in southwestern Kentucky in the early nineteenth century. The papers include correspondence, notes, notebooks, printed materials, records and sketches, all reflective of the genealogical interests of Mrs. Booker. These materials were initially loaned by Columbia State Community College to the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville, Tennessee for microfilming, and later after filming, were donated to the library. There are no restrictions on the material. Single photocopies of items in the Booker Family Papers may be made for genealogical or scholarly research from the Tennessee Library and Archives.

Her husband, Loyd Woodrow Booker, whom she married on September 9, 1950, died in 1987 in Maury County, Tennessee.  They had no children.  Lucy George died on October 22, 1995 at the age of 83 in Columbia, Tennessee.  She was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

THE LINEAGE: 

(Lucy George Thomas Booker was the daughter of Thomas Marshall and Georgia Ella Wilkins Thomas, the granddaughter of Alfred Marshall and Eliza Anne Martin Thomas and the great-granddaughter of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas. Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary was the seventh child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)