Garnett Thomas

Garnett Geneva "GG" (Barnard) Thomas was born September 6, 1916, to Jesse J. and Evelyn A. (Alexander) Barnard on Pine Street in Independence, Kansas. She was their first born and the first grandchild for both the Barnard and the Alexander families. In 1921, she had the distinction of being the first and only again when she started to kindergarten when her family lived at Lee Hunt a small, now abandoned town north of Independence. She was the only pupil that year in school and had the teacher all to herself.

She was about 6 years old when in 1922 the family made a long trip to the West. They first lived at the Grand Canyon National park which had only been a park for about two years. Garnett's father, Jesse, worked for the parks department driving a mule team to build the roads that serve the park now.

The family traveled on to Los Angeles California to visit Garnett's great uncle Frank Barnard. Then back to the southwestern tip of our country to Yuma, AZ. The temperatures were 110+ and Garnett's father, Jesse, was over come by a heat stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body and taking his left eyesight while working as a watermelon husker. His partial recovery took several months. They returned to Independence, Kansas in 1924.

Garnett attended grade schools in both Independence and Coffeyville. While she was completing her high school education it became necessary for her to stop school and nurse her ailing mother, Evelyn, and attend to the rest of the family. Garnett's mother had been diagnosed with TB and bed rest was the only known cure.

In 1934, at 18 years of age Garnett married James Clifford Smith. They had one son Keith Garland Smith on March 8, 1941, who preceded her in death in March 2005. She was married to Clifford Smith for about 7 years. They were divorced in 1942.

This was at the beginning of World War II. Garnett worked as a welder for the Funk Brothers on some of their first manufactured airplanes in South Coffeyville, Kansas. The Funk Brothers had just come to Kansas from Ohio when she started to work with them. They remained friends always.

As the soldiers returned from the war a couple of her friends introduced her to a decorated war vet, Ernest Lee Woods. They were married April 10, 1948 and had a daughter born just a little over a year later, Janeva Leigh (Woods) Bledsoe. The family lived in Caney, Kansas, until 1958, when they divorced and Garnett returned to Coffeyville. She bought a house just a short distance from her parents.

She worked for Electra in Independence that later became Automotive Controls which she retired from after 18 years. She met one of the neighborhood men, Boyd Dewayne Thomas. They were married July 11, 1970 in Coffeyville at the First Methodist Church.

After her retirement she had the time to pursue one of her real passions in life, her art. She won a $5000 scholarship from the Art Institute correspondence school. That instruction along with a great deal of natural talent has brought her numerous Grand Champions, Reserved Champions and Blue ribbons from local competitions. She has painted more pictures then can even be counted of family and friends along with some beautiful landscapes. Her works have been in pencil, oils and acrylics. All pieces are cherished as a lasting part of a talented and much loved woman.

Garnett lived at her home at 119 Grace Blvd. in Coffeyville, Kansas, until she was stricken by a major heart attack on October 14, 2005. She moved to her daughter's home in Topeka were she was cared for by Heartland Hospice in her daughter's home.

Garnett has been a life time member of the Methodist church and was a lay minister at one time, a Sunday school teacher for 12 years and a Sunday School Superintendent in the Caney Methodist Church.

She is survived by her husband Boyd D. Thomas, her daughter, Janeva Bledsoe of Topeka, two step-sons Jerry Thomas of Sulphur Springs, TX., Charles Thomas of Coffeyville, KS, two brothers Dale Barnard of Coffeyville, KS., and Glenn "Barney" Barnard of Linwood KS., four grandsons, Scott Smith of Mountain View, OK., Steve Smith of Caney, KS., Matt Morrow of McPherson, KS., Chad Morrow, Overland Park, KS., and one granddaughter, Shannon Smith of Trinidad, TX., two step-grandsons, one step-granddaughter, 11 great grand-children and 4 step-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at the Penwell-Gabel Ford-Wulf-Bruns Chapel in Coffeyville. Mrs. Thomas will lie in state at the funeral home after 2:00 p.m. today and family will receive friends from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

The family welcomes donations to the American Heart Association, or the South Coffeyville United Methodist Church.