William J. “Bill” Thomas, 88, of Missouri Valley, Iowa, died Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014, at Longview Care Center in Missouri Valley.

Services are 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, at First Lutheran Church in Missouri Valley. Military honors will be conducted by the Julius F. Muller American Legion Post 337. A prayer service will be Wednesday at 6 p.m. with visitation following until 8 p.m. at Hennessey Funeral Home in Missouri Valley.

William was born Feb. 22, 1926, to Clarence and Tena (Wohlers) Thomas. He grew up on the farms in the Beebeetown area where he enjoyed boxing, baseball, farming, and getting together with the many family members and friends in the area.

After graduating from high school, he joined the U.S. Army Corps and was stationed in Florida, Wisconsin and Washington state before being transferred to the Pacific Theater where he served as a radar technician, with stops at Hawaii, Guam, Midway, Wake Island, Okinawa and Japan.

William married Betty J. Royer on Aug. 20, 1947, in Woodbine, Iowa, and together raised two sons, Kent and Bruce.

Returning from the service, he started farming with his father in the Modale area, moving onto the farm that is now known as the “Home Place” in 1955. He continued farming with Clarence until his retirement in the mid-60s. His sons, Kent and Bruce, entered into the farming operation in 1977. William continued actively farming and living on the farm until he moved to Missouri Valley during the flood of 2011.

He loved visiting Colorado where he had spent a month working on his uncle Harry’s ranch in his mid-teens and continued to go there for short vacations in the 50s and 60s. He enjoyed attending baseball games in Omaha, Kansas City and Chicago with his immediate family and brothers-in-law and nephews.

William and Betty were regular attenders of their sons’ and grandchildren’s sporting events and school programs. He was a lifelong member of the Lutheran church joining the First Lutheran Church in Missouri Valley in the mid 50s.

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Betty; sister Helen McIntosh; sisters and husbands: Shirley and Ira Golden and Jean and Lynn Royer: sons: Kent and Dixie and Bruce and Kathy; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren and many relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Tena Thomas; sister and brother-in-law Bernice and Richard Hansen; brother-in-law William McIntosh; and infant sister Mildred Thomas.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~