Ninth Generation

14463. Doris Katherine Crumpacker was born on 30 January 1927 in Texas. Doris died in Taylor, Williamson Co., TX on 18 June 2004 and was buried at Lawrence Chapel Cemetery in Taylor, Williamson Co., TX in June 2004 .³⁹⁸⁰⁴

Doris Katherine Crumpacker and Walter Herman Thoms were married on 31 August 1947 in White Deer, Carson Co., TX. Walter Herman Thoms was born on 25 April 1924 in Gonzales, Gonzales Co., TX. Walter died in Round Rock, Williamson Co., TX on 8 February 2016 and was buried at Lawrence Chapel Cemetery in Taylor, Williamson Co., TX in February 2016 .³⁹⁸⁰⁵

Obituary, Providence Funeral Home, Taylor, Williamson Co., TX, Feb., 2016

Walter Herman Thoms died peacefully at Scott and White Hospital in Round Rock, Texas on February 8, 2016 at age 91, as result of cancer. 

Walter was born in Gonzales, Texas on April 25, 1924 to Hermann Heinrich Thoms and Clara Magdeline Thoms (nee Brosch). He was the seventh of eight children, six sisters and one brother, all of whom preceded him in death. 
Walter grew up in Sinton, Texas where he attended grade school, worked in nearby cotton gins that his father managed, and graduated from high school soon after the outbreak of World War II. He was drafted into the US Army Infantry, Signal Corps, and served in the Philippine Islands, New Guinea, and Japan. His military job was to manage homing pigeon lofts near the front lines, tasks with which he was already familiar from his high-school days. Walter continued to fly racing pigeons as a hobby throughout his life and was an active member of the Georgetown, Texas Racing Pigeon Club at the time of his death. Following WW II, he enrolled at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he met his wife, Doris Katherine Thoms (nee Crumpacker), of 57 years; Doris died in 2004.

Walter and Doris moved to Canyon, Texas in 1947 where he attended West Texas State University (WTSU), earned a B.S. degree in Agriculture, and where their first son, Alston, was born. They moved to White Deer, Texas where he began farming with his father-in-law and raised cattle as his family grew with a second son, Byron (deceased, 1984) and daughters Barbara and Ann. Walter continued farming through the dry years of the 1950s; in the early 1960s he abandoned farming in pursuit of a paying job as an operator at the Celanese Chemical Plant in nearby Pampa, Texas. During those years he earned a second degree in history at WTSU while Doris completed an MA degree and began teaching elementary school in Pampa. Walter worked at Celanese and Doris taught school until their retirement in the mid-1980s.
In 1988, they relocated to Taylor, Texas where they built a home in the Hunter’s Run development. Walter re-established his small cattle-raising operation near Lawrence Chapel in eastern Williamson County and actively managed it until a few days before his death. He is survived by three children, six grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren, along with fourteen nieces and nephews.

Walter will be remembered by family and friends as a kind, loving, and generous man. He was a consummate historian, especially knowledgeable about local history in all the places he called home: south Texas, the Panhandle, and for the last twenty-six years, Williamson County and vicinity. He was keenly aware of socio-cultural inequalities and consistently endeavored to call attention to injustices at local, regional, national, and international levels. 

Graveside services will be held for family and friends at Lawrence Chapel Cemetery—2800 County Road 473, Thrall, Texas 76578—at 1:00 PM, Saturday, February 20, 2016; they will be followed by a celebration of life at the Community Center adjacent to the Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Lawrence Chapel Cemetery Association, Attention Kim Miller, 109 Sentry Point, Hutto, Texas 78634.

Doris Katherine Crumpacker and Walter Herman Thoms had the following children: