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201 West Lampkin St.,
STARKVILLE, MS 39759
Phone: (662) 323-5905
201 West Lampkin St.
STARKVILLE, MS 39759
Phone: (662) 323-5905
201 West Lampkin St.
STARKVILLE, MS 39759
Phone: (662) 323-5905
201 West Lampkin St.
STARKVILLE, MS 39759
Phone: (662) 323-5905
201 West Lampkin St.
STARKVILLE, MS 39759
Phone: (662) 323-5905

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Obituary for Earl Thomas

Earl  Thomas
Earl Randolph Thomas, 87, died Saturday, June 25, 2016, at home (after a three year complication from a stroke) surrounded by family and friends whom he loved and they loved him. Visitation will be Monday,
June 27th, from 5-7 PM and Tuesday, June 28th from 10-10:50 AM at First Baptist Church (FBC), Starkville, Mississippi. Funeral will be Tuesday, June 28th, at 11 AM in the sanctuary at FBC. Burial will follow in Oktibbeha Memorial Gardens. The Reverends
Chip Stevens, Clifton Curtis and David Shivers will officiate.
Mr. Thomas was born December 1, 1928, to the late Fabus Cliett Thomas and Lucille Thompson Thomas in Montpelier, Mississippi. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Dorothy Mann Thomas; brother, Glenn Thomas (Betty) Double Springs, Alabama; sister, Janice Thomas May (Ubes P.) West Point, Mississippi; children, James Earl Thomas of Atlanta, John Thomas of Starkville, Jeanne Carol Shivers (David) of Atlanta, and Mary Ruth Henderson (Charles) and their children of Atlanta. Also surviving him are family members he helped raise and love him as a father figure and also many nieces and nephews.
He loved and adored being “Granddaddy” to his eight grandchildren: Brian Thomas and Laura Thomas; Mark Thomas (Laura), Catherine Thomas Bruno (Patrick), Taylor Shivers (Stephanie) and Ellen Shivers; and 3 great-grandchildren, Jackson Shivers, Libby Thomas, and Annabelle Jean Shivers.
After graduating from Montpelier High School he worked his way through Wood Junior College and Mississippi State University earning a degree in Agriculture Education. Soon after graduation he became a draftee in the Oklahoma National Guard Thunderbird Military Police Division serving in the Korean War. After returning from Korea he then took a "temporary job" at Babcock & Wilcox for four years. His passion in life was helping others so taking a job at the Mississippi Department of Social Welfare helped turn him toward a life of teaching and helping others. He loved social work and decided to go to the University of Tennessee where he earned his Masters of Social Work in 1963. After earning his masters he returned to the Mississippi Department of Social Welfare as Director of Training for the state. In 1967 he became a professor in the Social Work Department at Mississippi State University, where he would retire as Professor Emerita of the MSU Sociology Department.
He was an active member of First Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon. He also chaired the church's maintenance committee, the Brotherhood Christmas Baskets Adopt-A-Family ministry, director for many years of a Senior Adult Ladies Sunday school department and the church's bus ministry. He loved driving the church bus (with partners Russell Cobb and Bobby Files) where they drove young people on ski trips, choir trips, and wherever the bus was needed. On one trip he convinced the young people that there really is such a thing as a “Jack-a-Lope.” At the end of that trip they gave him one, which they thought would look like it (if there was even such a thing). He drove many trips with senior adults with tour leader, Dr. R. Raymond Lloyd. He saw America as he drove in every state except two. He was an active member and President of Starkville Habitat for Humanity and lead the building of over twenty Habitat homes in Starkville. He was an active member and President of Starkville Optimist Club and was very active in the Optimists' fundraising activity of providing workers for concession stands at Mississippi State University for baseball and football. He also served as President of The Mississippi Conference on Social Welfare, Member of the Council on Social Work Education, Member of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, President of the local Association of the American Association of University Professors, President of the Tombigbee Council on Human Relations, Chairperson of the Board of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations, Founding Member and Chairman of The Board of Prairie Opportunity, Board Member of Community Day Care, Member of The Governor's Commission on Criminal Justice Standards, Member of The Oktibbeha County Chamber of Commerce serving on the University Relations Committee, Adopt-A-Family Committee, and as Vice Chairman of the Leadership Development Committee. He received numerous awards from these organizations for his service to these organizations. After retirement from MSU he became a Team Leader with the Zig Ziglar “I Can” program and was responsible for putting that program in many schools throughout Mississippi. It was one of his favorite ways to help others and to be associated with Zig Ziglar.
He attended every MSU baseball and basketball games as long as his health allowed it. He attended MSU girls’ basketball games through the “not so good times” as well as the exciting times. He always sat in “HIS SEAT” at the girls’ games.
Memorials may be made to the Benevolence Fund (in keeping with his lifelong mission to help others), First Baptist Church Starkville, 106 East Lampkin Street, Starkville, Mississippi, 39759, or to the Building Fund at First Baptist Church of Sandy Springs, (the church where his son-in-law, David, is pastor) 650 Mount Vernon Highway NE, Sandy Springs, Georgia, 30328.

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