A Brief Sketch
Mary Ellen Rees was born December 29, 1877 in Provo, Utah to Moroni and Emily Vaughan Rees, the fourth child in a family of six boys and three girls. Her hair was ‘white as cotton’ at birth but gradually turned to a very dark brown. She was a small, lithe, little lady of about ninety pounds and her flashing dark eyes twinkled with wit and good humor, so characteristic of her. Her home was Cherry Creek near Malad, Idaho and it was there she spent her entire childhood, attended school and participated in church and community activities such as giving recitations and dancing at the ‘Old Barn’. She loved gathering chokecherries with her brothers and sisters and especially enjoyed fishing in the Malad River, provided she wasn’t required to eat her ‘catch’. She worked for a time at the hotel in Malad, helping wit the cooking and cleaning. Also, she and her best friend, Annie Jones, cut and sewed together balls of carpet rags which they sold to a rugmaker for extra pocket money.
She met Daniel Phillips Thoms of Salt Lake City, who was employed at the time on a farm in the Malad Valley and on Oct 20, 1899 they were married. They moved into a brick home that he had constructed for them on Provo Bench, Utah. He continued to work at various farms in that area. Their first child, Daniel was born in January, 1901 and died fifteen months later of pneumonia. A year later Elizabeth arrived, followed by Laurence, Lloyd, Emily, George, Albert, Verl, Melvin and last and also least, Nina, weighing in at two and one half pounds. Because of their being premature, Verl lived only two hours and Melvin just three weeks. With the growth of the family came the addition of two rooms to the house and more acreage to their own fruit farm.
Dan passed away in January, 1938 at the age of 64 and is buried in the Provo City Cemetery. Mary Ellen followed him in death just two years later, April, 1940 at the age of 63 and was laid to rest at his side. At the time of their passing, they had enjoyed only five grandchildren but at the present time, June, 1967 have to their credit fifteen grandchildren, eighteen great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchildren; have also buried two wee granddaughters and two great-granddaughters. Their son Lloyd passed away on March 25, 1963 at the age of 56 in Los Angeles, CA following heart surgery. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Gardens in Whittier, California.
Dan and Mary Ellen were congenial, hardworking companions and were honest, honorable and charitable. While they were unable to provide their children with all of life’s luxuries they did give them an abundance of love and a genuine feeling of security.
Mary Ellen’s most outstanding quality was an intense pride in and loyalty to her family.
Submitted by Nana Thomas Mc Ewan
OUR MOTHER
(Mary Ellen Rees Thomas)
She was saucy and pert, with a humorous air,
Laughing brown eyes, and dark shining hair,
With soft gentle hands and enough love to share,
She cured all our ills; our burdens she’d bear.
She never refused to help those in need
Of her special talents, which were many, indeed.
She was tiny in stature, about five foot one,
With the ‘go’ of a bullet shot from a gun.
With the courage of Nero, but afraid of a mouse,
She traveled life’s road, hand in hand with her spouse,
She’s been gladdened and saddened, disappointed, surprised,
Fore’er looking forward, new goals to realize.
She enticed one to laugh, with a funny remark,
Or by ‘pulling’ a face, so comically stark.
She loved to tease Dad, who would laugh at her tricks.
They had not much money, but were both solid bricks.
We love her and miss her, how much we can’t tell,
We regret her grandchildren couldn’t know her as well.
She seldom complained when the going got tough.
She was one in a million, a diamond in the rough.
We know that she loved us, each year more and more,
And we knew she loved Dad, who had gone on before.
She couldn’t be happy, unless by his side.
As she always had been since her day as his bride.