Katrina's Lives Lost:	Rodney James 'Crump' Thomas Jr., 1923-2005
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A November 2005
Source:			Times Picayune 10-26-2005

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Rodney James "Crump" Thomas Jr., 81, was a U.S. Navy veteran and a U.S.
Postal Service retiree. But more than that, he was a family man.

His two sons, two daughters and eight grandchildren were his pride and joy,
said Yvonne Fassitt Thomas, his wife of almost 56 years. The two were
introduced by a mutual friend after Thomas, a lifelong New Orleanian,
returned from serving in World War II.

"He was just a very, very loving and kind-hearted man," she said. "All of
his children adored him and looked up to him."

"He was really a good dad to us," said daughter Charlene Thomas Wilson of
Baton Rouge. She also spoke of the importance that her father, a graduate
of McDonogh 35 High School, placed on making sure all his children
graduated from college -- which they did, beginning with the firstborn,
Rodney J. Thomas III, who went to Harvard and now works in Dallas.

Charlene especially recalled the graduation of the youngest, Trina Thomas
Wilson, from Emory University in Atlanta.

"He and my mother had her late in their lives, and I think he worried about
not being around for her," Charlene said. "So when she graduated, he was
the happiest man. He walked around with that diploma like it was his."

Trina then went on to get another diploma, from law school.

"He was a very good husband and father to his children," said Thomas'
sister-in-law Alice F. Jupiter, "and it was reflected in their behavior and
success in life."

Son Derek A. Thomas has advanced to the rank of chief petty officer in the
Navy, currently stationed in Honolulu.

Still, it wasn't all work and no play for the Thomas family. On vacations,
Charlene said, "We would drive to New York, California and Florida." And
her dad was a sports fan with a loyalty to the Saints.

But one thing about him is a mystery to his family: how he got the nickname
"Crump." They only know that he acquired it before he and Yvonne met.

"We were trying to guess that the other night," his wife said. "To tell the
truth, I never did like the name."

A few years after their marriage, Rodney and Yvonne Thomas were among the
first to move into New Orleans' Pontchartrain Park subdivision, which,
before Katrina, was scheduled to celebrate its 50th anniversary this month.

Yvonne evacuated. Her husband stayed behind.

"Everything was destroyed," Yvonne said of the flooded family home a day
after a funeral Mass was held for her husband at St. Jude Catholic Church
in Baton Rouge, the Thomases' home church in New Orleans having been
heavily storm-damaged. "All the childhood pictures were destroyed."

Having her family around her, the family to which her husband was so
devoted, Yvonne Thomas said, "is the only thing that has given me the
strength to go on."