Clyde Tinsley Thomas -- Farmer

 

Louise and Clyde Tinsley Thomas

Clyde Tinsley Thomas was born on January 10, 1923 in the Dry Creek-Linton community of Trigg County, Kentucky.  He was the youngest of seven children of Conrad Tinsley Thomas and Nola Lorraine Sholar Thomas. Conrad Tinsley was a farmer and both he and Nola were natives of Trigg County.  Tinsley was a descendant of Starkie Thomas.

Tinsley’s siblings were unnamed twin infants born and died in 1916; an unnamed infant born and died in 1917; Virginia Estelle Thomas, born in 1919 and died at 15 months; and Conrad Boyd Thomas, born in 1920 and married Caroline Virginia Thomas.

Tinsley attended elementary schools in the Linton community until his family moved to Christian County. He then attended LaFayette High School where he graduated in 1940.  He then enrolled in the University of Kentucky.  He was there for 1½ years until he left school to volunteer for the armed forces in 1942.

On October 19, 1942 he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps and was sent to training in several states including Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.  He was trained as a pilot of a B-24 bomber plane.  He was sent overseas and flew several bombing missions over Germany.  He was honorably discharged from the Air Corps on October 29, 1945 as a first lieutenant.

On November 27, 1948, Tinsley married Emma Louise Dawson at the Ninth Street Christian Church in Hopkinsville, the same church where Louise’s parents were married 24 years earlier.  Louise was born on June  16, 1927 in Trigg County, the daughter of Almont Dawson, Sr. and Agnes Belle Miller Dawson.  Almont was a farmer and both he and Agnes were natives of Trigg County.

After Tinsley left the military in 1945, he returned to work on his father’s farm where he started his own lifelong career as a farmer.  He also served as a director and later vice chairman of the Western Kentucky Fair Board from 1952 to 1979.  Louise was a homemaker and had served as a board member of the Christian County Farm Bureau.

Tinsley and Louise were the parents of three children, Clyde Tinsley Thomas, Jr., born in 1951; Deborah Louise Thomas, born in 1954 and married Michael Fred Murphy; and Donald Lynn Thomas, born in 1958 and married Anita Jo Robertson.

Louise died on August 8, 2001 at the age of 74 at her home in Herndon, Kentucky.  She was buried in the Green Hill Memorial Gardens in Christian County.  Tinsley died on July 20, 2002 at the age of 79.  He was buried in the Green Hill Memorial Gardens next to his wife.

Tinsley and Louise tombstone

LINEAGE: (Clyde Tinsley Thomas was the son of Conrad Tinsley and Nola Lorraine Sholar Thomas.  Conrad was the eighth child of William Henry and Ophelia Estelle Tinsley Thomas.  William 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.)