David Fletcher Thomas 1878 - 1954

THOMAS, ROBINSON

Posted By: Deb (email)
Date: 12/26/2014 at 21:32:06

the Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette

Ends Life By Hanging In Garage Of Home Here

A retired farmer, despondent because of ill health, ended his life by hanging Tuesday morning (October 12, 1954) in the garage of his home at 502 Cedar, according to police.

He is David Fletcher Thomas, 76. The death was termed by Coroner Robert O. Giles, as a suicide.

His wife, the former Lillian Robinson, reported the hanging to police. She said she discovered him in the garage and thought at first he was looking up screens in a rack.

Police found that Thomas had placed a ladder against the rack, tied a rope around a rafter, put his head in a noose and jumped. He was dead when officers arrived and Giles was notified.

Mrs. Thomas said her husband had been in ill health recently, suffering from a heart condition. She told police that she was washing clothes and noticed that he had been missing from half to three-quarters of an hour. It was then that she went to the garage and found him.

The body was taken to Giles funeral home where funeral arrangements are pending.

A life resident of Des Moines county, Thomas was born in Burlington February 27, 1878, the son of John and Amilda Thomas. He was married October 20, 1936, to the former Lillian Robinson.

Thomas was a member of Pleasant Grove Presbyterian church. Surviving are Mrs. Thomas; two sons, Leo, of Sperry, and LeRoy, of New London; two daughters, Mrs Edith Miller, and Mrs. Gladys Hanks, both of New London.