Mary
Mary Gore Thomas
d. May 29, 2012
Mary Teresa Gore Thomas, 83, passed away surrounded by her family and friends on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 from complications due to Alzheimerâ??s disease in Hopewell, Virginia. Mary was born on September 24, 1928, in Mullens, West Virginia. She was the oldest of six daughters born to the late Agnes Spradling Gore and Joseph Bernard Gore. Mary graduated in 1947 from Mullens High School in Mullens; received her Registered Nursing Degree from St. Francis School of Nursing, Charleston, West Virginia, in 1950; and earned her Pediatric Nursing Practitioner Certification from West Virginia University in 1974.
Maryâ??s three passions in life included her Catholic faith, her nursing career, and her family. She was an active member of three Catholic churches: St. John the Evangelist in Mullens, WV, St. Francis de Sales in Beckley, WV, and St. James in Hopewell, VA. Ministries in which she served included being a choir director, parish council representative, Ladies Altar Societies, religious education teacher, and bereavement committees. As a delegate to the International Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she conversed with Mother Teresa of Calcutta and received a nurses blessing from her.
Maryâ??s nursing career spanned an almost 60-year time period. She worked as a coal company nurse, she organized and implemented then non-existent community health care programs in southern West Virginia: in emergency rooms, private practice, labor and delivery, hospitals, nursing homes, and private duty nursing. As President of the West Virginia Nurses Association, she worked tirelessly in lobbying on the state and national levels to improve basic health care in West Virginia. But her duties as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and providing for quality end-of-life care to the elderly were her most passionate.
Preceding Mary in death are her parents and a sister, Elizabeth Gore Newton. She is survived by her daughters, Cecilia Thomas Johnson, and Therese Thomas Parker and her husband, Ronnie; the Johnson grandchildren, Mariel, Elizabeth, Becky and her husband, Ismail Bouzidoune, Kiffy and her fiancé, Mike Werkheiser; the Parker grandchildren, Jeff, Matt and his wife, Sarah, and Brittany Uribe and her husband, Tony; great-grandchildren, Pierce, Bryant, Angela, Estrella, Abagail, and Andrew; four sisters, Helen Gore Zachwieja and her husband, Alex, Christine Gore Kiessling and her husband, Francis, Catherine Gore, and Doris Gore Humphrey and her husband, Elbert; and a large, loving family of nieces, nephews, and cousins.
A Rosary will be said at 6:00 p.m. with a visitation to follow until 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at St. James Catholic Church, 510 W. Poythress Street Hopewell, VA 23860. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 1, 2012 at St. James Catholic Church with interment to follow at Appomattox Cemetery in Hopewell, VA.
Being a lifelong Girl Scout, Mary requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to Girl Scout Troop 585 (3414 Vinton Street, Hopewell, Virginia, 23860), or any Girl Scout Troop or Service Unit.
Condolences may be registered online at www.jtmorriss.com .
Maryâ??s three passions in life included her Catholic faith, her nursing career, and her family. She was an active member of three Catholic churches: St. John the Evangelist in Mullens, WV, St. Francis de Sales in Beckley, WV, and St. James in Hopewell, VA. Ministries in which she served included being a choir director, parish council representative, Ladies Altar Societies, religious education teacher, and bereavement committees. As a delegate to the International Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she conversed with Mother Teresa of Calcutta and received a nurses blessing from her.
Maryâ??s nursing career spanned an almost 60-year time period. She worked as a coal company nurse, she organized and implemented then non-existent community health care programs in southern West Virginia: in emergency rooms, private practice, labor and delivery, hospitals, nursing homes, and private duty nursing. As President of the West Virginia Nurses Association, she worked tirelessly in lobbying on the state and national levels to improve basic health care in West Virginia. But her duties as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and providing for quality end-of-life care to the elderly were her most passionate.
Preceding Mary in death are her parents and a sister, Elizabeth Gore Newton. She is survived by her daughters, Cecilia Thomas Johnson, and Therese Thomas Parker and her husband, Ronnie; the Johnson grandchildren, Mariel, Elizabeth, Becky and her husband, Ismail Bouzidoune, Kiffy and her fiancé, Mike Werkheiser; the Parker grandchildren, Jeff, Matt and his wife, Sarah, and Brittany Uribe and her husband, Tony; great-grandchildren, Pierce, Bryant, Angela, Estrella, Abagail, and Andrew; four sisters, Helen Gore Zachwieja and her husband, Alex, Christine Gore Kiessling and her husband, Francis, Catherine Gore, and Doris Gore Humphrey and her husband, Elbert; and a large, loving family of nieces, nephews, and cousins.
A Rosary will be said at 6:00 p.m. with a visitation to follow until 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at St. James Catholic Church, 510 W. Poythress Street Hopewell, VA 23860. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 1, 2012 at St. James Catholic Church with interment to follow at Appomattox Cemetery in Hopewell, VA.
Being a lifelong Girl Scout, Mary requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to Girl Scout Troop 585 (3414 Vinton Street, Hopewell, Virginia, 23860), or any Girl Scout Troop or Service Unit.
Condolences may be registered online at www.jtmorriss.com .
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Mary Gore Thomas, please visit our flower store.
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