Philomela Kay Thomas was born on February 16, 1941 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the daughter of Hulan Henry Thomas and Margaret Harrell Thomas. Both of her parents were natives of Trigg County, Kentucky. She had one older brother, Hulan Glyn Thomas who was born in 1934. In addition, she had four half siblings all older than her from her father’s marriage to his second wife, Joyce Dean Robertson. They were Faye Thomas, born in 1948, Stanley Gerald Thomas, born in 1950, Maurice Wayne “Butch” Thomas, born in 1954 and Michael Lynn Thomas, born in 1963.
In 1948, Kay lived with her mother about two miles east of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Her father, Hulan, lived at the time in nearby Russellville, Kentucky. On the afternoon of August 31, 1948, Margaret was at work at nearby Hopkinsville and Kay was apparently alone at her home where she was playing a game of “cowboys and Indians” with a neighborhood boy, Billy Vinson. Billy was 13 years old and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Vinson. Kay was wearing a bracelet which Billy said he wanted, but she would not give it to him. The young man then obtained a .410 gauge shotgun and playfully pointed it toward the girl and demanded the bracelet. When she did not give him the bracelet, he pulled the trigger of the shotgun and the charge from the gun went through the girl’s head. Kay died instantly in the yard. She was seven years old at the time. The County Judge James E. Higgins paroled the young man to the custody of his father, Earl Vinson, pending an investigation of the shooting.
A coroner’s jury met on the following day, September 1, and returned a verdict of accidental death. The jury ruled that the “unloaded” gun was fired accidentally by Billy Vinson after he had playfully demanded a bracelet that she was wearing. The boy told Sheriff Lance Futrell that he did not know that the gun was loaded.
Funeral services were conducted on the same day that the coroner’s jury made its ruling and Kay was buried in the Flat Lick Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery near Herndon, Kentucky. Her tombstone erroneously states she died on September 1, 1948, but all death records indicate she died on August 31.
LINEAGE: (Philomela Kay Thomas was the daughter of Hulan Henry and Margaret Harrell Thomas, granddaughter of Stanley Dyer and Willie E. Hite Thomas and great-granddaughter of William Henry and Sidney Dyer Thomas. William Henry was the third child of Stanley and Emily Ann Light Thomas. Stanley was the second child 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.)
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