Mary Ann Thomas

Mary Ann (Fischer) Thomas was born on a farm northeast of Hunter, Kansas on September 9, 1936 to Elizabeth (Schneider) and Henry Fisher and passed away at home with her husband and family members present on February 23, 2006. She was the third child and first daughter of six siblings. Mary Ann was baptized and later confirmed into the Lutheran faith at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hunter, Kansas. Her family moved into Hunter where Mary Ann attended grade school, not missing a single day of school through the eighth grade. As a teenager, Mary Ann did house work, spent summers helping on a farm, and delivered the Salina Journal.
Mary Ann was united in marriage to Gail Gordon "Tom" Thomas at Salina, Kansas in 1954. Tom and Mary Ann celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June, 2005 with a family event. From 1962 until 2001, Mary Ann, Tom, and their son Jan lived on the Vanier ranch southwest of Beloit where Tom and Jan worked until Tom's retirement.
Mary Ann became a certified nurse's aide (CAN) and worked at Hilltop Lodge for 33 years. Even when her health no longer allowed to work as a CAN, she worked in the Hilltop dining room as long as possible. Her greatest joys were her children and grandchildren and the many nieces and nephews she loved as her own children. She loved to cook and was widely known for her homemade noodles which she learned to make from her own mother and grandmother. She would have loved to have had a green thumb for her own vegetable and flower gardens but too little rain and too many dogs and kids made her less than a prize-winner in the horticulture category.
Highlights of Mary Ann's life, which she recorded herself in a memory book, included a high school field trip with a favorite cousin to spend the summer with their great aunt in Springfield, Missouri (they "ran away" home to Kansas after ten days) and her first plane trip with daughter Konnie and son Jan to visit her sister Helen in Abingdon, Virginia in 1992; experiencing the Atlantic Ocean "up close and personal" for the first time on a side trip to Myrtle Beach.
Mary Ann was preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Elizabeth Fischer, an infant brother, her sister Myrna Wallace and brother Edward Fischer, and infant daughter, Patricia. She was survived by husband Gail "Tom" who passed away on May 21, 2006. She is survived by sons Jan and Jeff (Marilyn) Thomas of Beloit, and daughters Konnie (Rick) Wheeler and Krista (Rex) Jackson of Wichita, grandchildren Ryan Jackson, Madison and Regan Wheeler of Wichita, susters and brothers and spouses: Helen and Richard Finley of Abingdon, VA; James and Ellen Fischer of Twin Falls, Idaho, Bill and Phyllis Fischer of Lyndon, Kansas, and Donna Fischer of Lincoln, Kansas, and sister-in-law and spouses Evelyn and Richard Keller of Hunter also survive plus many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
Cremation has taken place and burial of her ashes will be at a later date. Memorial contributions may be given to Zion Lutheran Church or Solomon Valley Hospice.