Virginia Dunn Thomas was born on May 5, 1943, in Big Spring, Texas. She passed unexpectedly but peacefully from this world to her home in Heaven on November 28, 2021, at her house in Clear Lake. She was 78. She spent the first five years of life on a cotton farm in Stanton, Texas, and then moved with her family to Lamesa. With two older brothers, Bill, and Sherrod, she developed a reputation for toughness, and found her mission, at least for a few years, of “torturing” her brothers, “pushing buttons” as only a little sister can do. And Virginia was happy to say that more than 50 first cousins living around her experienced that torture as well.

In her teenage years, Virginia loved to sing. She participated in choir competitions at school, and she sang in the church choir at First Baptist Lamesa. She was runner up in the Miss Lamesa pageant and graduated from Lamesa High School in 1961. While attending West Texas State University in Canyon, she met Steve Thomas, and they were married on February 28, 1962. Their love for sports not only drew them together but would play a major role in their lives together. After daughter Sandra was born in 1962, they moved to Hereford, TX, where Steve got his first teaching position.  Virginia worked as an aide and substitute teacher until daughter Jennifer was born in 1971. Steve started the high school tennis program at Hereford, and Virginia played a big role in helping that come to pass. In 1977, they moved to Lubbock, where Steve would teach and coach tennis. At the age of 47, Steve passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly.

Virginia’s mother was quite ill during her childhood and both parents passed before she was 45. These and the loss of her husband “too soon” was devastating. But with that toughness she had learned as a child, that had developed in the context of sports and competition, she would now carry on with a determination and fortitude that many of us never find. Virginia had worked in the mortgage loan department at First National Bank, and became a loan officer. One year after Steve’s death, her first grandchild, Stephen was born, and in many ways, her family and her new grandson became her new focus for living. After moving to Garland, TX in 1991, to be near her brother Bill, she moved to Clear Lake in 1997, to be near her daughters. Following a long career in the banking/mortgage business, Virginia began work at University Baptist Church in 2000 as an administrative assistant to UBC pastors of missions ministries. She was a determined and loyal part of the ministry team at UBC.

For the last thirty years of her life, Virginia has been helping her family in every way possible. For Stephen, she was always “there” for him—never missing a game of soccer, or swimming, or water polo. After her two granddaughters Hailey and Katie, moved to Clear Lake, Virginia was their life support, being there with them, guiding them, teaching them, encouraging them. For Jennifer, Virginia gave her all to help her through struggles, transitions and victories of life. And when Sandra’s husband Brian was very sick, Virginia supported them in ways too numerous to mention. This was her mission—HER FAMILY, loving them, helping them, celebrating with them. And through it all, Virginia battled cancer more than once, had several falls that resulted in broken bones, fought against a lung and heart condition, and she never complained. But rather she fought through it, carried on, with determination that she learned as a child, then as a young widow, and later as a parent of two daughters and as a grandmother. She was loved by many. And if you ever needed to know who won the big tennis match or the football game the night before, you knew who to ask.

Virginia was preceded in death by her husband, Steve Thomas.  She is survived by her daughters Sandra Gayle Bartz (Brian), and Jennifer Thomas Cleveland; two granddaughters, Hailey Lynn Cleveland and Kathryn Dawn Cleveland, all of Clear Lake; one grandson, Stephen McKinney Bartz (Dr. Laura Johnson), New Orleans, LA; one brother, Bill Dunn (Jean), Garland, Texas; and numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Her life will be remembered and celebrated in a memorial service at University Baptist Church, 16106 Middlebrook Dr., Houston, on Thursday, December 16, at 1:30 pm.

Virginia will be laid to rest with her beloved husband Steve in a graveside service at Dreamland Cemetery in Canyon, TX on January 13, 2022, at 2:00 pm.

The family encourages all to wear bright clothing in the spirit of celebration.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to: The Steve Thomas Scholarship Fund.

This is an annual memorial scholarship in her husband’s name that is awarded to the outstanding senior tennis player from Monterey High School in Lubbock, TX, where her husband coached tennis.

Make checks payable to:  The Steve Thomas Scholarship Fund

then mail to:  Steve Thomas Fund, c/o University Baptist Church, 16106 Middlebrook Dr, Houston, TX 77059.