Thompson, Donald Martin (1926-2010)
THOMPSON, THOMSEN, FURE, BRYANT
Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 1/21/2013 at 21:08:24
Donald Martin Thompson
March 16, 1926 - January 2, 2010KERRVILLE — Donald Martin Thompson completed his transition from this life into the next in the early morning hours of January 2, 2010, his loving wife, Wilma, by his side. Don was prepared and at peace, concerned only about how his physical absence would affect his wife and two children.
The youngest child of Martin and Esther Thompson, Donald, was born on March 16, 1926, in the small town of Armstrong, Iowa. The baby brother, he had four older siblings, Herman, Ethel, Lillian and Alice. After the family moved to Rake where they bought a farm, young Donald grew up contentedly helping with chores, going to school, and playing on the land.
He played high school basketball and dated a girl named Wilma Fure before graduating and joining the U.S. Air Force just prior to the end of World War II. Having been stationed in Japan, he talked of those days for the rest of his life. Upon his return home, he attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and married Harriett Thomsen in 1946. In 1949, the couple moved to Casper, Wyoming, where Don worked as an accountant at a bank. Their daughter, Patrycia (Ann), was born in 1951. Two years after her birth, the young family returned home and settled in Mankato, Minnesota, in order to be closer to their parents and siblings. At about the same time as their son, Danal Mathew, was born in 1955, Don was hired by the St. Paul Dispatch/Pioneer Press. He worked in the circulation department eventually making his way up through the years to the position of circulation manager.
Donald and Harriett divorced in 1967. With both children in his care, Don continued to support them as a loving father.
Finding himself alone after his children had grown, Don began thinking about the girl named Wilma he had dated in high school. Living in St. Paul, Minnesota, at this time as luck (or fate) would have it, he discovered through mutual former classmates that Willi was recently divorced and also residing in the same area. He found her once again, but this time, he did not let her go. They married on January 5, 1979, and enjoyed every moment of their lives spending time together with friends and family, taking trips to faraway places, volunteering for causes they cared deeply about, fulfilling a serious commitment to their church and faith, and looking after each other with smiles gracing their faces and love and happiness filling their hearts. Don retired in 1989, and he and Willi moved to Kerrville, Texas.
Don was proud to call Kerrville his home for the last twenty years. He will be missed by many, many wonderful and dear friends. He assessed his successes in life by the friendships he made and the love of his family.
Donald was preceded in death by his mother, father, brother, sisters, and his grandson, Jesse Mathew Thompson (1979-2007).
He is survived by his wife, Wilma; his daughter, Ann Bryant (Lake Tahoe, California); his son and daughter-in-law, Dan and Sue Thompson (Sioux Falls, South Dakota); his grandson, Johnny Lee Thompson (Sioux Falls); his granddaughter-in-law, (wife of Jesse) Carrie Mees Thompson; and his great-granddaughter, Madylyn Joy Thompson (Harrisburg, South Dakota). Don is also survived by two grand doggies, Sadie and Millicent, and one grand porcupine, Martin.
Services will be held at Zion Lutheran Church in Kerrville at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, January 8, 2010. Burial will be at Trinity Lutheran Church in [rural] Kiester, Minnesota [rural Thompson, Winnebago County, Iowa], on Memorial Day weekend of this year.
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