Jimmy Thomas

Memorial services for Clinton resident Jimmy Ray Thomas, 50, were held Tuesday at the First Baptist Church of Cordell.

He died Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, at Integris Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma City after a lengthy illness. In June 2014, he was diagnosed with a genetic lung deficiency that led to liver disease.

Jimmy Ray Thomas was born Jan. 13, 1965, in Mangum, the son of Homer and June (Murdock) Thomas.

He graduated from Mangum High School in 1984 and obtained his associate’s degree from Western Oklahoma State College in Altus in 1986. He then moved to Weatherford and attended SWOSU and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering.

In 1987, he began a 22-year career working at Sawatzky Construction. On May 17, 1997, Thomas married Kelley Anne Barnett, and they made their home in Clinton.

He was a member of the Cordell First Baptist Church.

Aside from spending time with his family and friends, he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and woodworking in his shop. He loved the family farm in Reed and passed that love down to his children.

He is survived by his wife, Kelley, and his two sons, Douglas and Samuel, of the home in Clinton; his parents, Homer and June Thomas of Mangum; his brother, Ronnie, of Mangum; his sister, Debra Owens, and her husband, Henry, of Anadarko; two sisters-in-law, Shelley Barnett of Seattle, Wash., and April Thrash of Clinton; his uncle and aunt, W.A. and Francis Bird of Plainview, Texas; and many nephews, one niece and numerous cousins.