Created Dec 23, 2018
In Memory
- This eternal flame burns forever
- in remembrance of Thomas E. Anderson
Thomas Edward Anderson
September 7, 1931 -
December 23, 2018
Thomas Edward Anderson was born on September 7, 1931 in the back
seat of a taxi cab just outside the doors of Saint Francis Hospital in
Evanston, Illinois.
Though his
parents Mamie and Arvid Anderson were protestant
Evangelical Lutherans they gave no thought to the consequence of arriving
at the door of a Catholic hospital with a
premature infant son. Not long after
being taken from the back seat of the taxi and being placed in the nursery
baby Thomas was soon baptized by the on-duty
Priest. Thus, began his life journey as
a self-described “Fundamental Ecumenicalist”.
Thomas
joined his parents and two older
brothers Arvid,
Jr (Ted) and Robert (Bobby)in the home of his paternal grandparents on North
Main Street
in Evanston.
His earliest memories included the sight each day of his grandmother
Hannah sitting in her rocking chair with her arthritic legs
perched near a radiator. As the radiant heat soothed her physical pain
her bible was held in her hands
as she steadfastly completed her dedicated
bible reading and spiritual mediation. It was an example of faith and devotion which
the child everyone now called Tommy would remember the rest of his life.
Through
the years of the Great Depression the adults of the home worked as
opportunities presented themselves to house and feed the family.
Ted and
Bob departed the home in the late 1930’s to become hands on the Hannula
family (maternal grandparents) dairy farm in Hurley, Wisconsin.
Tommy
would join his brothers on the farm each Summer just after
Memorial Day and return to Evanston around Labor Day. He smoked his
first cigarette at the age of seven on an overnight
train ride to Wisconsin it was a habit launched in that moment. When prompted, Tommy would
admit his first drink of alcohol had come two years
earlier at age five while hanging out with his brothers in the dairy barn. The Summers of farm
work
with first milking at 4AM followed by days of
bucking hay or cleaning corrals convinced Tommy the life of a dairy farmer was
not for him.
Tommy and
his father Arvid
were listening to the Chicago Bears football game on December 7, 1941 when the
broadcast was interrupted to announce
the bombing at
Pearl Harbor. Not long after many of
the young men of the Anderson and Hannula families
were heading off to war.
Older
brother Ted joined the Navy and served the entire war as a boiler tender on
ships in the Central and Western Pacific.
When he later returned from
the war his tales
of tropical lands planted a desire in Tommy to go see the world himself as a
sailor. Tragedy arrived in 1946 when Tommy’s father Arvid
died suddenly because of chronic alcoholism. It was a grief Tommy carried with him the
rest of his life. The death of his
father and Tommy’s own drinking
did disrupt his focus on academics and athletics
and he began to drift with a gang which called themselves the Main Street Alley
Rats. Later he would
admit to minor brushes with the law, but mostly he
and his friends would drink, smoke and flirt with the girls. He dropped out of high school and began work
as a Soda Jerk in the drugstore on the ground
floor of the apartment building where he lived with his widowed mother Mamie
and infant sister Dorothy.
Later he
would sell insurance and vacuum cleaners.
In 1951, he received a draft notice as the Korean War was raging. He went to the Navy recruiter and was told
he had to be a high school graduate. In short order, he was able to arrange for a
GED exam which he passed in all areas on his first attempt in May 1951 to become
a graduate of
Evanston Township High School. The next
day, he enlisted in the United States Navy. After boot camp at Naval Training
Station Great Lakes,
Tom (as he
was now known) was assigned to duty at the Naval Aviation Supply Depot in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He worked
in the communications area
and spent his off-duty hours in an apartment with
five other sailors who made sure there was always several cases of Budweiser
beer available.
Later, he
would admit he and his friends did work and party hard.
In the Spring
of 1953, one of his sailor buddies asked Tom if he would join him on a blind
date for a prom with a young lady who would soon graduate from high school.
Tom’s
dancing skills and personality melted the heart of the soon to be
graduate. She invited him to her
graduation, church and other events with her family over the next
five months. In October of 1953, in the parsonage
of the Brethren church of the bride and her family, Tom pledged his heart and
affection to Lois Ann Stone.
It was a
bond which endured for over 63 years and beyond her death in July of 2017.
Though the ladies of the Brethren Church were counting months since the
marriage
Date , daughter Lois Ann did arrive on
the first day of September of 1954 which was well into the tenth month of the
new marriage. That was a point Lois
made sure to make to “those old bitties”
of the Brethern
Church as she was showing off her new born daughter. Shortly the delivery Lois bundled her
daughter
for travel and flew off to Argentia,
Newfoundland to join her husband at his
new Navy duty station. Later, Naval
service took the family to Bainbridge, Maryland
and then on to Norfolk, Virginia. It was in Norfolk and the nearby Portsmouth
Naval Hospital where Tom Jr arrived on the scene on Valentine’s Day of 1960.
Tom’s Navy
career was zooming right along as he was promoted to Chief Petty Office after
just eight years of service. Yet, his
beverage of choice, Budweiser was beginning
to cause problems in both his personal and
professional life. By July of 1960
alcohol consumption had become a problem. On July 23, 1960 Tom went to an
Alcoholics
Anonymous
meeting and heard a crusty ex-Marine describe his life before and after being
sober. When the meeting concluded Tom
decided to stop by his favorite bar
just outside the entrance to the Destroyer and
Submarine piers. As he entered the bar,
he motioned to the waitress and said “Budweiser”. She did not hear his order. Tom paused
and looked into the mirror behind the bar and
took a long hard look at the man in the glass he was observing. In that moment,
the words of the Marine came to the
forefront of his thoughts and he said them
aloud to himself – “any damn fool can stay sober for 24 hours”. The waitress took Tom’s order for a
7-Up. No Budweiser or any
other alcoholic beverage crossed Tom’s lips again.
With sobriety unfolding day by day, Tom’s tour in Norfolk onboard USS Tidewater
came to an end in 1963 and the
family moved to the Philippine Island of
Luzon and the town of San Miguel and its Navy base there. Though Tom had begun to stay sober he had
continued his habit
of smoking four packs of Camel cigarettes each
day. One night, he was jolted from
sleep by a sudden loss of breath. In
that moment, he asked God for strength to cease smoking.
The next
morning, he had a first cup of coffee and began his daily devotional without a
cigarette in his hand. He never smoked
again. After three years, the family then moved
back to the U.S. in 1966 and resided in the
Washington, D.C. area. The final tour
as a Navy family was spent in the Norfolk area once again. In August of 1970, Tom’s service
in the Navy came to an end when he retired as a
Radioman Senior Chief Petty Officer.
His plan was to move to Arkansas where he would go to college and study
to become an
educator.
The family settled in Dardanelle, Arkansas and soon Tom was enrolled in
Arkansas Tech University. As his sobriety began to take hold, Tom had begun a
practice of daily bible
study,
meditation and prayer which he had seen modeled by his grandmother
Anderson. Once out of the Navy his focus
on faith and spiritual study became stronger.
Tom and his family
became active in the ministry of the
Dardanelle United Methodist Church where he was a lay speaker at the Pisgah
United Methodist Church and became active in the
Lay
Witness Mission program. Meetings of
Alcoholics Anonymous were attend frequently
too.
In 1972,
Tom was driving home from a day of college when he heard a voice say, “now
you are ready”. He arrived home to
announce his call to the ministry in the
United Methodist Church
and soon the family was serving together on the
Morrilton Parish. When Tom graduated
from Arkansas Tech in 1975 the family moved to Richwood, Ohio to serve the Central
United
Methodist Church while seminary work was
completed. During the time in Richwood, in October 1976, Lois Ann married Gary
Glass who resided in the community.
The
wedding events became a
impromptu family reunion for both the Anderson and Stone families. As Lois and Tom enjoyed hosting siblings,
parents and other relations from their
families who had scattered across the
nation when all came together in one setting. In May 1978, Tom graduated from
the Methodist Theological School of Ohio with degrees
as a Master of Theology and Master of Christian
Education. Son Tommy graduated from high
school about the same time. So, as a
trio Tom, Lois and Tommy departed Richwood to
take on a fulltime appointment to the Marshall –
Leslie Charge in north central Arkansas. Two years passed quickly and the steps
for ordination as an Elder in the United Methodist Church
were completed.
A few months after the ordination ceremony an unexpected mid-year
appointment to the Hoxie – Clover Bend charge was announced. During this time son Tommy
graduated from college and joined the Navy
to follow a family tradition. Two additional appointments in some half-dozen
years took Tom to Manila with a mission to rebuild a fire destroyed
church structure and then on to Fisher
Street in Jonesboro. The final and
longest appointment was to the Clarendon – Holly Grove charge where he served
for seven years and realized
a deep personal attachment to the land and
lifestyle of the Grand Prairie. In June
1992, son Tom married Nancy Lewis of Seattle, Washington. Full retirement came
in June 1996, but retirement did
not end the itinerant lifestyle for which Tom
(and Lois) had become accustomed. As
they transitioned away from parsonage life they leveraged the skills and
perspectives in a new direction in the
role of a
fulltime RV lifestyle and active participation in Good Sam activities in events
throughout the mid-South. They also
became avid and dedicated servants for Fishnet Missions and
Trinity
United Methodist Church. As each day
passed and Tom stayed sober for another 24 hours his faith grew, his study of
scripture continued, and he became an unceasing intercessory
prayer partner in the Silent Unity
network.
Thomas
Edward Anderson passed away on December 23, 2018 with his final hours were
spent in hospice care in a quiet and comfortable setting with a spirit of love
filling the air.
Before
hospice comfort medications were administered Tom offered these final words to
his family and friends with a broad smile on his face and his arms extended in
the manner of a benediction
-
"love everyone like they are your brother or your sister!" Tom Anderson died sober after 58 years and
21,337 days of 24 hours of “One Day At A Time” which
he would tell you “any damn fool can do it”.
Thomas
Edward Anderson is survived by daughter Lois Ann Glass and husband Gary and
their children Christopher and Leigh Ann all of Richwood, Ohio and
son Thomas
E Anderson Jr and wife Nancy of Albuquerque, New Mexico and their children
Renee Lewis-Andersen of Oppegard, Norway,
Aaron Lewis of Renton, Washington
and Victoria Anderson of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Tom Anderson’s roots were from a humble background from which faith and love
were core values.
He
embraced the words of John 3:16 and lived each day preparing for eternal
life. In keeping with his desire to
tithe his blessings and share his talents, gifts and service through
active support for the work of groups he
fully supported please direct memorial contributions to either:
Fishnet
Missions of Jacksonville, Arkansas
1700 Swift
Drive, PO Box 972
Jacksonville,
AR 72078
Or,
Trinity
United Methodist Church
PO Box
17029
North
Little Rock, AR 72117
Visitation
will be from 5:30 to 7:30 PM, Thursday, December 27, 2018 at Smith-North Little
Rock Funeral Home.
Funeral
will begin at 9:30 AM Friday, December 28, 2018 at
Trinity United Methodist Church followed by burial with military honors at the
Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery.
There's
still time to send flowers to the Visitation at the Smith-North Little Rock
Funeral Home from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM on December 27, 2018.
Though He's gone, He is not forgotten.
Though absent, He remains in spirit.
Though once a worker, He now rest.
by The Arkansas Good Sams
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