Emma Ione Barton-Hooten-Thomas

Emma Ione Barton-Hooten-Thomas, passed away July 26, 2019 under hospice care in Fort Worth.

Graveside service: 2 p.m. Thursday, August 1, 2019 in Laurel Land Memorial Park, Garden of Light section.

Visitation: 6 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at Biggers Funeral Home.

Emma Ione was born February 13, 1924 in Knox County, Truscott, Texas to Avery Jack and Nolia M. Barton at the home of her aunt Ethel Chilcott- her dad’s side of the family. She was raised in Cottle County, Paducah Texas. The daughter of a share cropper, she picked cotton at 7-10 years old, and learned to sew at age 9-12. During the depression dust bowl years, she remembers wetting feed sacks and dish rags to put under the doors and windows to keep the dust from coming into their house.

In the fall of each year, she and her two sisters and brother, rode in a freight wagon , pulled by mules. She would ride 20 miles to the Swenson Ranch to gather firewood and/or cow-chips to burn in the winter.

In high school, Emma Ione lettered in basketball at Valley View High School in Paducah. She was also proud of the the fact that she could out run most school mates on the track team, even though she was not a member of the track team.

She graduated in 1942, and Emma Ione went to Ranger Texas, Eastland County for NYA school (National Youth Administration work study program). She was taught the riveting trade for military aircraft, hence she became one of the “Rosie the Riverter” women of the war effort.

Coming to Fort Worth in late 1942, she worked for Consolidated Aircraft (what is now known as Lockhead Martin) and built B-24 bombers for the duration of WWII.

Emma Ione met her future father-in-law at Consolidated Aircraft before she met her future husband, Willis A. Hooten, an Army Corporal, who was soon deployed to Europe for the war relief effort. Willis and Ione were married in February of 1946, and began their life together.

After the war ended in 1945, Emma Ione obtained employment at Montgomery Wards off 7th Street in Fort Worth as a clerk. Within a few years, as a PTA mom and housewife, she found herself busy baking cookies, fried pies, cakes and deserts for all. She was not one to let a pear, apricot, or pecan rest on the ground for the birds or squirrels to gather. Planting a flower garden was an every year event that was important to her.

In 1947, Willis and Ione endured the loss of their one-day old infant son, Willis A. Hooten, Jr.

In 1948, Jerrell Ray came along, followed by John B. in 1951. A daughter, Darlene, arrived in 1957, and the routine in the house changed for everyone due to a little girl being in the home and now part of the family. As Darlene aged, Emma Ione went to work at Carter Blood Center as a telephone operator calling upon donors to come in and donate a unit of blood.

In 1974, Nancy Darlene passed away three days shy of her 17th birthday due to an unexplained illness. Over the next 25 years, Emma Ione, herself, alone, donated 15 GALLONS of blood.

After retiring, she and husband Willis traveled with a pickup and travel trailer all over the USA for approximately eight years. After 50 years of memories, Willis passed away in 1996.

In 1999, she married Dr. Henry W. Thomas, Jr. (the family doctor), of Lake Worth. They immediately began to travel with a motor home all over the USA, Canada, and Mexico for a period of 13 years. Upon Dr. Thomas’ death in 2013. Emma Ione involved herself again in gardening, church activities, and family.

As health issues took their toll, Emma Ione kept her servants heart with a smile on her face. She began making quilts for her grandkids, great-grandkids, grand-nieces and nephews. We believe she completed 15 to 17 of these quilts. No body knows the exact count and one quilt remains incomplete to this date.

Emma Ione had a love for rocks. She saw things in them that most didn’t, and she collected any and ALL of them.

During the 1970’s, as we all know, Emma Ione began her love of frogs. At last count, in the early 2000’s, there were well over 200 frogs collected and spread throughout her home. Ceramic, steel, stuffed, paper, glass, metal, wood… it didn’t matter. If you could shape it into a frog…she had it.

She loved watching little children play and she always paid her taxes on time.

The family wishes to thank Dr. Paul Goldman, MD and staff for their dedication and commitment to Emma Ione’s personal health needs. We thank Brookdale, Inc, who provided her residency at assisted living and later on with memory care services. “Thank you” to the Ridgmar Medical Lodge staff and physical therapy service for your support and care during her medical issues in the end. Last but not least, the family wishes to thank the ASANA Hospice team for their care, assistance and concern over the last few days of her life here on earth.

She was a founding member of North West Church of Christ from 1968 and actively served until her health took its toll.

Emma was preceded in death by her first husband of 50 years, Willis A. Hooten, and her second husband of 14 years, Dr. Henry W. Thomas, Jr. Her first born son, Willis A. Hooten, Jr , one day old, in 1947, and her only daughter, Nancy Darlene, 16 years old, in 1974.

Survivors: Her children, Jerrell Ray and wife, Rhonda, John B. and wife Kary; grandchildren, Christine, Monica, Jonathon, Angie, and Melissa; 11 great-grandchildren; at last count in the early years, Emma Ione had 72 first cousins; there are also countless friends and acquaintances that Emma Ione has touched and loved over the years.