Perry Elmo Thomas was born on August 19, 1891 in Calloway County, Kentucky, the son of Monroe A. Thomas and Mary Susan Graham Thomas. He was named after his great-grandfather, Perry Thomas, one of the patriarchs of the Thomas family in Trigg County, Kentucky. His father was a farmer and later became a prominent businessman and real estate dealer in Murray, Kentucky.
Perry or Elmo as he was called attended schools in Calloway County and went on to attend the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He graduated from the University on June 18, 1919, one of twelve students who were designated as graduating with “high distinction.”
After graduation, Elmo returned to Murray and assisted his father in the family businesses. Records indicate that his father owned several valuable oil buildings in the Dallas, Texas area and Elmo in the early 1920s moved to Texas to take care of his father’s business operations in that area. Elmo was known as an oil operator and oil geologist.
On the afternoon of May 2, 1924, Perry was in Corsicana, Texas, about fifty miles southeast of Dallas. Around 4:30 p.m. that afternoon Perry had picked up two friends, Kathleen McKnight from Temple, Texas and Geddes Manning, from Waco, Texas for a trip to Dallas. Both young ladies were teachers in the Corsicana school system. Around 6 p.m. the Ford coupe in which they were traveling was hit by an interurban car about a half mile south of Palmer, Texas at an over grade crossing. An interurban car was a streetcar-like self propelled rail car which ran between cities and towns. All three passengers in the car were killed almost instantly. The car was demolished as it was knocked over and over and dragged a distance of 175 yards. All the bodies were mangled within the vehicle.
News of the tragic accident reached the residents of, Kentucky and news articles at the time in Cadiz mentioned that the deceased’s father was a first cousin of the Honorable G. P. Thomas of the city and that his grandfather was Starkie Thomas, who for many years was a leading citizen of Calloway County. The local newspaper stated that “…all the Trigg county Thomas’s are his near relatives, and “Old Uncle” Perry Thomas, many years a leading citizen of Donaldson, was the great grandfather.”
Elmo’s body was shipped back to Murray where he was buried in the Murray City Cemetery. Elmo was 32 years old at the time of his death. He was the only son of Monroe and Mary. They had one other child, a daughter, Gladys Matia Thomas, who was born in 1898. The loss of his son was a great burden on Monroe and was believed to be one of the reasons that he took his own life a few years later in 1930.
Tombstone of Perry Elmo Thomas
LINEAGE: (Perry Elmo Thomas was the son of Monroe A, and Mary Susan Graham Thomas, the grandson of Starkie Duprey and Sarah Frances Pugh Thomas and the great-grandson of Perry and Elizabeth Josephine Bridges Thomas. Perry was the third child of James and Mary Standley Thomas. Elizabeth was the sixth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges)
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