James Oscar Thomas

OZARK…Mr. James Oscar Thomas (Major, Alabama Army National Guard, Retired), a resident of Ozark, entered Heaven’s Gates early Friday morning, December 8, 2023, at his home. He was 94.

            Funeral services will be held at 2:00 P.M. Tuesday, December 12, 2023, in the Fuqua Bankston Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Brian Presley officiating. Graveside services, with full military honors, will follow in Woodlawn Memory Gardens. Fuqua Bankston Funeral Home of Ozark is in charge of arrangements. The family will receive friends from 5:00 until 7:00 P.M. Monday at the funeral home.

            In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Gideons International, Dale County Camp, PO Box 291, Ozark, Alabama 36360 or to the Samaritan’s Purse.

            Mr. Thomas, son of the late John Oscar Thomas and Daisy Lillian Strickland Thomas, was a native of the Asbury Community, near Ozark. He was a 1947 Graduate of Ozark High School and retired from the Alabama Army National Guard with the rank of Major. Mr. Thomas was a veteran of the Korean War and was also activated in 1961 during the Berlin Crisis stationed at Fort Irwin, California. He formerly lived in Dothan, Asheville, North Carolina, Tampa, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, Columbus, Georgia, and Atlanta, Georgia before retiring from the United States Postal Service as a Postal Inspector. Mr. Thomas was a member of the Ozark First Assembly of God Church. He was preceded in death by his wife of sixty-eight years, Susie Griggs Thomas, two great-granddaughters, Esther Mirabelle Thomas and Fenix Thomas, a sister, Martha Annette Turner, and two brothers, Malcolm Othea Thomas and Wayne Ardy Thomas.

            Surviving relatives include two sons, Greg Thomas (Lieutenant Colonel, Alabama Army National Guard, Retired) and his wife, Karen, Ozark, and Richard Lee Thomas (Captain, Alabama Army National Guard, Retired), and his wife, Sherry, Columbus, Georgia; grandchildren, Pastor John Gregory Thomas and his wife, Sundrea, Heather Michelle Thomas, and Chris Michael Thomas; great-grandchildren, Tazlina Joy Thomas and Ava Nichole Thomas; numerous nieces and nephews.