Ray Fredrick Thomas

Ray Fredrick Thomas, 85, of rural Mediapolis, died Thursday, June 8, 2000, at Henry County Health Center in Mt. Pleasant.

The funeral service was at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Hagele and Honts Funeral Home in Mediapolis with the Rev. H. Dick Reynolds officiating. Burial will follow at Kossuth Cemetery. In lieu of flowers a memorial has been established.

Mr. Thomas was born March 20, 1915, at his lifelong home in rural Mediapolis, the son of Fred D. and Vinettie W. Seifken Thomas. He married Mary Elizabeth Orr on December 28, 1938, at Mediapolis.

Thomas was a 1933 graduate of Mediapolis High School. He was a dairy and grain farmer all his life at a farm which has been in his family since 1835, one of the oldest farms in the state of Iowa.

A past president of the Southeast Iowa Gas Engine Club, he built and sold several stationary balers which he and his wife demonstrated at several of the area gas engine shows and at Old Threshers. He was also an avid toy collector.

Thomas was a member of the Des Moines County Genealogical Society, and with his wife documented most of the cemeteries in Des Moines County and donated the information to local libraries. In addition, he spent several years documenting his own family tree and wrote a book about it.

Survivors include one son, Keith Thomas of Mediapolis; one daughter, Mary Ann Showalter of Burlington; four grandchildren; two great-granddaughters; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, three brothers, and one sister.