Geneva Simmons was born on July 31, 1917 in Trigg County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Arthur and Alma Dawson Simmons, both natives of Trigg County. The Simmons family lived in the Linton Community and Arthur worked as a farmer. Geneva had five brothers and three sisters.
On January 1, 1939, Geneva married William Boyd Thomas. Boyd was born on February 22, 1917 in Trigg County, the fifth child of Lucian M. and Inez B. Crews Thomas. He had a brother, John Alex, born in 1907; Hubert, born in 1909; Homer Blane, born in 1911, Mary Julia, born in 1917 and Alton, born in 1923. Lucian lived in the Oak Grove Community and was a farmer
Geneva and Boyd were the parents of three children. Their first child, a daughter, Wanda Lou was born on June 29, 1940. A second daughter, Judy Nell was born on September 17, 1941. Their only son, Anthony Boyd “Tony”, was born on December 16, 1944.
Boyd owned and operated a walk-up restaurant known as Boyd’s Dairy Dip located on Highway 68 west of Cadiz near the Pete Light Spring Restaurant. Boyd also served as a board member of the Bank of Cadiz and Trust Company.
On the evening of Tuesday, May 28, 1946, Boyd, age 29, was building a fire in a wood stove in the living room of their home. Geneva was sitting near the stove dressing their 17-month-old child, Tony. Boyd was apparently using kerosene to help start the fire in the stove when the kerosene can and stove exploded setting the six room house on fire. Boyd, his clothing aflame, carried his wife and baby outside the home and dipped then in a pool of water near the Thomas house. He then immediately took them to the Futrell Clinic, located approximately five miles away. The explosion was heard by neighbors who lived more than a half mile away. The two Thomas daughters, Wanda Lou and Judy, four and five years of age, managed to escape as the home burned quickly to the ground. Geneva and Tony were transported to Jennie Stuart Hospital in nearby Hopkinsville because of the seriousness of their burns. Unfortunately, Tony died of his burns a few hours after reaching the hospital. A few days later, on Saturday, June 1, Geneva, who was 28 years old, became the second fatally injured person of the fire when she died at the hospital as the result of her wounds. Boyd, who was painfully burned and was also a patient in the hospital, planned to accompany the body of his wife back to Trigg County for her funeral services.
Both Geneva and Tony were buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery in the Oak Grove community of Trigg County. Boyd married a second time when he married Eunice Grace Thomas on June 28, 1947. He died on June 18, 1998 and was buried next to his first wife, Geneva.
Tombstone of Anthony Thomas
LINEAGE: (Anthony Boyd Thomas was the son of William Boyd Thomas and Geneva Simmons. William Boyd was the son of Lucian M. and Inez Crews Thomas, the grandson of Jonathan Starkie and Julia Dyer Thomas and the great-grandson of William Bridges and Nancy Jane Rogers Thomas. William Bridges Thomas was the first child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas. Starkie was the fourth child of James Thomas and Mary Standley Thomas and Mary Bridges was the seventh child of Drury Bridges and Charity Cahoon Bridges.)
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