Mary Grace Cunningham Thomas --Businesswoman and Sheriff

 

Mary Grace Cunningham Thomas

Mary Grace Cunningham was born on November 8, 1909 in Trigg County, Kentucky. She was the only child of “George Dab” Cunningham and Pocahontas Cunningham, both natives of Trigg County, Kentucky. Her father was a farmer in the county and her mother was a homemaker.

Mary Grace grew up in the Mershon’s Bridge community and graduated from Cadiz High School in 1927.  After graduating, she taught grades one through eight at Mershon’s Bridge’s one room school for a year.  On February 14, 1929, she married Luther T. Thomas.  Luther was the son of Wesley Gunn Thomas and Eliza L. Henderson. Wesley Gunn was a native of Trigg County’s Oak Grove community and Eliza had been born in Caldwell County, Kentucky.

Mary Grace and Luther settled in Cadiz where Luther was a salesman for Ford automobiles, and later became the owner of the Ford dealership for Cadiz as well as a Ford tractor and implement dealership.

Mary Grace and Luther became the parents of two sons, Luther Daniel Thomas, born in 1946 and George Wesley Thomas, born in 1949.

Luther also was involved in public service and politics, and had been elected Trigg County Tax Commissioner for four terms serving from 1933 to 1949.  In 1957, he was elected as Sheriff of Trigg County.  Near the end of his term as Sheriff in late September 1961, Luther was appointed by Governor Bert Combs as Warden of the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville. Mary Grace was appointed to serve out the remaining three months of his term as Sheriff.  She was only one of two women to ever serve as Trigg County Sheriff.

Mary Grace also worked, with her husband, in the Trigg County tax commissioner's office and in the family's Ford automobile and farm tractor and implement businesses in Cadiz. She was a well known and respected businesswoman in the community.

After her husband’s death in 1965, Mary Grace continued to oversee the operation of the family’s two farms and continued as a partner in Burke-Thomas Company, the family tractor and implement dealership until 1983.

Mary Grace died on June 12, 2005 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  She was buried next to her husband in the East End Cemetery in Cadiz.

 Luther and Mary Grace Thomas

 Tombstone of Luther and Mary Grace Thomas

LINEAGE: (Mary Grace Cunningham was the wife of Luther Thompson Thomas.  Luther was the son of Wesley Gunn and Eliza L. Henderson Thomas, grandson of Stanley and Emily Ann Light Thomas, and great-grandson 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)