Oct 3, 2021

Thurma Jean Wharton Thomas passed away peacefully Monday, June 7, 2021, after a brief illness, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Born in 1939, she died just shy of her 82nd birthday. She was born in Cambridge, Ohio, to Clarence “C.C.” Wharton Jr. and Melba Jane Brown Wharton.

She grew up in Burgettstown, where she graduated from Union High School and went on to study at Kent State University.

She married Rex H. Thomas of Midway, and later moved to Linesville.

She was predeceased by her husband, Rex H. Thomas; her parents; her infant brother, Charles Robert Wharton; son-in-law, John Markle; great-grandson, Kaleb Gardner; and her Siberian Huskies, Last Chance and Red Baron, and her beloved Shih Tzu, Wesbster, (AKA Damn Lil Dog Brother.)

She is survived by her children, Tracy J. Thomas and husband Henry B. Smith of St. Petersburg, Fla., Jeffrey Thomas of Arcadia, Fla., Ricki Cooper Markle of Port Charlotte, Fla., and Rex Derrick Thomas of Daytona Beach Shores, Fla.; like a stepson, Ted Rossman and his wife, Stacy of Oklahoma City, Okla.; her little Shih Tzu, Sammy; 12 grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, October 9, in the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio, followed by a graveside service at the cemetery in Lower Salem, Ohio . A celebration of life will then follow at 5 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Slovan.