The senior distance runner closed out his high school career in style, winning the 3,200 in 9:41.37 at the Class 2 state meet Friday in Jefferson City. He also anchored the Black Cats’ 4×800 relay to a second-place finish (8:12.18) and came back Saturday to place fifth in the 1,600 (4:32.5). He thus was connected to 22 of Herky’s 30 points, which gave the Black Cats fourth place in the team standings – the first team trophy for a Herky boys track team since 1992. Jackson plans to continue his running career at Missouri Southern University in Joplin this fall. (Gordon Bess photo.)

“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, is an expanded obituary that focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.

For more than a century, her smile shone on family members, friends, her church family and even total strangers. Up until her death last week at 101, Ione Thomas was a fixture in the Cedar Hill area, always reaching out to others.

“She had the most beautiful personality. Very congenial,” said Mrs. Thomas’ daughter, Vallerie Volk of St. Louis County. “One of my brother’s friends said she was like a second mother to him. Any of our friends were her friends.”

Her serene smile did not give a hint of the challenges Mrs. Thomas faced. While raising four children on her own, she worked a variety of jobs and still managed to find time to be active in her church and community.

“She worked at Magic Chef showroom on Kingshighway, putting stoves together,” Volk said of her mother. “Then she worked at a local pub-style cafe. She worked in the kitchen and serving customers. People would come in and say ‘I want HER to serve me.’ Her oldest son, my brother Donald, and his wife worked; for years my mother took care of their eight children during the day.”

Mrs. Thomas had very little formal education, but was a life-long learner.

“She went (to school) up to about the sixth grade,” Volk said of her mother. “She might have been slow in math, and the teacher corrected her, so she just left school. Never went back.

“But she was a reader. She loved gardening; loved flowers. She read extensively on how to care for plants. Her mother, my grandmother, was a seamstress in a local factory, and she taught my mother to sew.”

Mrs. Thomas and her children lived with her parents for many years, and the family members all pitched in to help around the place.

“My grandma had pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, so we all got involved with those,” Volk said. “My mother liked to can. We had two pear trees that were bountiful, and we’d take the pears and make pear honey.”

Mrs. Thomas cared for her parents in their final years. After her mother died, her children got her interested in gardening.

“My sister got her interested in planting an orchard,” Volk said. “She had apple, peach, cherry trees, as well as an apricot tree.

“Later, she got into arts and crafts. She made throw pillows for the living room. She made wedding albums, putting lace around them with an insert for a picture on the cover. She made these elaborate wall hangings, using lace or eyelet.”

Her Catholic faith was important to Mrs. Thomas.

“Originally, she went to Good Shepherd in Hillsboro,” Volk said. “Later, my sister would take her down to Mary Queen of Peace in House Springs. When she stayed with me here, we’d go down to the Old Cathedral in St. Louis.”

Mrs. Thomas was what her daughter calls “very prayerful.”

“She’d read a lot, and she would send for prayers and memorials to promote the Miraculous Medal.”

In her century of life, Mrs. Thomas imparted many important lessons to those around her.

“She was just so full of life,” her daughter said. “And she gave us the security of a loving family.

“I think the biggest message she gave us was that, even though we have disappointments in life, when you fall back on the love and security of your family it gives a person stability. Like I’ve told many people, I didn’t see any money in my teen years, but we had all that was necessary. We grew our own food and tended our animals, and we had that security.

“When I look at her picture, at that little smile on her face, I chuckle to think of all the things she did that were so full of love.”

– Laura Marlow

The Arnold Recreation Center water park will open this weekend because of the warm weather that is expected, says Susie Boone, the city’s Parks and Recreation director.

It will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 19-20, and then will close again until the following weekend, when it officially opens for the season.

Admission is $6 a person. The cost of admission for seniors 62 and older is $5. Children 4 and younger will be admitted for free.

The rec center, 1695 Missouri State Road, also has an indoor pool and track, basketball courts, fitness equipment, meeting rooms and more.

A separate admission fee is charged for use of the indoor facility.

Also, memberships are available.

For more information, go to the city’s website at www.arnoldmo.org.

– Kim Robertson

White Castle’s public relations firm reports that the company’s St. Louis Store No. 42 in Festus opened in June 1983. The drive-through was added in 1994.

It turns out that Facebook historians are almost as reliable. In response to an online question about when Jefferson County’s first slider provider opened, the Leader got the following responses.

Janet Caldwell Davis said: “I know exactly. Kevin and I got married May 21, 1983, and it opened a week later – right after we moved to Rolla. I always remembered that because of the rotten timing.”

Bill Haggard remembered the restaurant opening around 1983 or 1984.

Michelle Akers-Dicken said: “Bill is right, but I think it’s 1983. I applied for a job there when they first opened my junior year and that was the end of 1983. We used to go there after cruising Main Street and watch the drunk people stumble in. (LOL). Quite a freak show some nights.”

Josh Bishop said: “That was my first job. I worked there in 2000 until 2002.”

Diana Rowland said: “Dan says it wasn’t there in 1980, so sometime between 1980 and 1985. It was here in 1988 when I was transplanted here.”

Sherree Faries Fite said: “I think early 1980s. Can’t remember for sure.”

Pam Johnson said: “I do know that they were open in 1985, because that is where my husband Steve and I first met.”

Like the Leader on Facebook by clicking the ad on the lower right side of this webpage so you can join in next time there’s an important question facing the community.

Antonia Elementary School in the Fox School District has announced the fourth quarter 4.0 Club for students who earned all A’s on their report cards.

Third grade

Mrs. Chadbourne: Samantha Finder, Allison Hewett, Gabrielle Schmidt, Kayla Stehr.

Mrs. Holloway: Grant Davis, Zach Davis, Brynn Gerhardt, Chloe Hartzell, Dillon Houser, Megan Long, Teagan Ortmann, Alyssa Pratt, Caleb White, Karlie Williams, Nathan Willcutt.

Mrs. Parker: Melany Block, Faith Port, Lou Raub, Andrea Smith, Riker Smith, Mackenzie Stuart, Madison Sullivan, Abigail Wieberg, Ellie Zebas.

Mrs. McKlin: Griffen Anderson, Cullen Caffery, Ellie Cook, Meagan Deveydt, Lillian Holmer, Daden Kane, Emma Pauly, Makenzie Tripp, JT Walters.

Fourth grade

Mrs. Bonastia: Samantha Allen, Kenny Banaszek, Meagan Eilermann, Isabella Grizard, Timothy Headrick, Hayden Heinemeier, Alexis Knoll, Gabbie Leesemann, Logan Meyer, Lauren Montgomery, Jacob Thomas.

Mrs. Darnell: Elijah Baum, Alexander Blackledge, Thatcher Karsch, Joseph Klutho, Joseph Stuckmeyer, Tatum Wyman.

Mrs. Griggs: Reanna Meyer, Emily Stasiak.

Mrs. Kraemer: Jackson Adams, James Betz, Cris Licavoli, Bella Schlemmer, Alex Woods.

Fifth grade

Mrs. Barnett: Sophia Caffery, Maggie McDowell, Maura White.

Mrs. Kugler: Brook Chandler, Ethan Courtney, Madison House, Maisy Hulen, Branden Mullins, Jordyn Spreck, Abby Stetina.

Mrs. Hutchison: Hanna Hulen.

Leader Publications publisher Pam LaPlant, center, and advertising manager Glenda O’Tool Potts, left, board a Union Pacific train in De Soto on Friday (May 18) morning for a UP C.A.R.E.S. moving safety lesson. In the photo, Kevin Dawson ushers them aboard. He works for Union Pacific as a public safety manager for the company’s northern region.

Dawson said about 50 local people had an opportunity to ride in three vintage, restored passenger train cars from De Soto up the tracks to Jefferson Barracks in south St. Louis County and then back to De Soto.

During the trip, Dawson talked about safety for motorists who must drive across railroad tracks and explained that walking on railroad tracks is dangerous and illegal.

During the trip, an unplanned example of trespassing took place as a man and child wandered across multiple tracks near Jefferson Barracks.

Dawson said the ride was part of the company’s 150th anniversary celebration.

LaPlant said the train ride was a lot of fun.

“I thought it was great, and I just wish everyone could have had the opportunity to take the trip,” she said. “There were a lot of people who participated who had never been on a train before.”

For more details and photos from the trip, see the May 23 Leader newspaper.

– Story by Peggy Scott; photo by Ted Howell

A St. Louis County woman sustained a broken leg and foot Thursday (May 17) when her southbound motorcycle was struck by a car pulling out on Hwy. 61-67 from Landmark Manor Drive in Pevely, Pevely Police Department reports.

Carolyn Rangel, 43, was southbound on Hwy. 61-67 about 9:35 a.m. on her 2009 Yamaha when she was struck by a 2009 Saturn attempting to make a left turn onto Hwy. 61-67, police reported.

The driver of the car, Hannah Mosley, 31, of Pevely, was not injured.

A Survival Flight helicopter stationed at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Crystal City responded to the accident and transported Rangel to a hospital.

Pevely Police Chief Ron Weeks said Friday he didn’t anticipate any charges in connection with the accident.