Dale Thomas Calhoun -- First Woman to Serve on Trigg County Fiscal Court

 

Dale Thomas Calhoun

Velva Dale Thomas was born on August 13, 1939 in Trigg County, Kentucky.   She was the third of four children born to Homer Blane Thomas and Beulah Louise Bridges Thomas.  Her parents were both natives of Trigg County and her father was a farmer.  Her siblings were Robert Blane Thomas, born in 1937 and died in 1938; Dora Larue Thomas, born in 1938 and married Lewis O. Sharp and later married E. W. Oliver; and Sue Anna Thomas, born in 1941 and married Emlis H. King.

Dale started school at the Oak Grove School and later attended the Maple Grove School.  She then went on to attend the Cadiz Graded School in Cadiz.  She attended high school at Trigg County High School.  She graduated from Trigg County High School in 1957 as an honor student.

In 1961, Dale began working for the S. H. Kress and Co. department store in Hopkinsville, Kentucky where she worked until 1965.  While working at the Kress store, she attended a vocational school during the fall of 1964 and spring of 1965.  In the fall of 1965 she began a new job with Collins Buick in Hopkinsville. The following year she returned to Trigg County to work, accepting a position with Hoover Ball and Bearing, Co. where she worked until January 1972.

On May 10, 1957 Dale married her first husband, William Hawkins Smith, Jr. in Robertson County, Tennessee. William, a Trigg County native, was born on May 10, 1939.  William and Dale had a son, William Dale Smith who was born on May 6, 1958. Dale’s marriage to William ended by divorce in 1963.  William Dale died on August 21, 1975 in a tragic farm tractor accident which occurred on his great uncle’s farm in the Maple Grove community.  He was buried in the Drury Bridges Cemetery.

Dale’s second marriage was on August 17, 1968 to Marvin Cloud “Goober” Calhoun.  Goober was born on July 6, 1940 in the Donaldson Creek community, the son of James Monroe Calhoun and Mary Lucille Noel Calhoun.  Goober attended the Graham School and the Linton School.  He worked as a farmer and then worked with the Fourshee Building Contractors where he was a backhoe operator and a painter.  In July 1966 he went to work at the Hoover Ball and Bearing Company until June 1967, when he partnered with Freddie Bryant to form their own business, the Calhoun and Bryant Excavating Company.  Later he was the owner and operator of Marvin Calhoun Backhoe Service.

On November 5, 1985 Goober was elected as the magistrate for the Trigg County Fiscal Court representing the Sixth District.  The Fiscal Court serves as the legislative body for the governance of the county.  He served from 1986 to 1990.  In May 1993 he was elected again for a five-year term as county magistrate.

Dale and Goober lived on a farm on Beechy Fork Creek in Trigg County which they bought in 1971.  Along with this farm, Goober also operated the farm belonging to Dale’s parents.  On March 20, 1997, Goober died as a result of an apparent heart attack at the age of 56.  He was buried in the Lucian Thomas Cemetery in Trigg County, Kentucky.

A history-making event occurred on April 30, 1997 when Kentucky Governor Paul Patton appointed Dale to serve out the remaining term of her husband’s tenure as magistrate from the Sixth District on Trigg County’s Fiscal Court. Dale became the first woman to serve on the County’s Fiscal Court.  She was sworn in to the position left vacant as the result of her husband death.   Trigg District Judge Chappell officiated over the swearing in ceremony at the Trigg County Courthouse on May 1, 1997. 

Dale died on July 12, 2010 at the age of 70.  She was buried in the Lucian Thomas Cemetery next to her husband.

Dale Thomas Calhoun tombstone

LINEAGE: (Velva Dale Thomas Calhoun was the daughter of Homer Blane and Beulah Louise Bridges Thomas and the granddaughter of Lucian M. and Inez B. Crews Thomas and John Trice and Maggie Dora Cunningham Bridges.  Lucian was the fourth child of Jonathan Starkie and Julia Dyer Thomas. Jonathan was the third child of William Bridges and Nancy Jane Rogers Thomas.  William was the first child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  John Trice was the sixth child of Cullen T. and Martha Virginia Thomas Bridges.  Cullen was the twelfth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges.  William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)