Eulogy for Ellsworth George Thomey
Service Date: Friday, November 6th, 2015
Good morning. Today we are here to celebrate Ellsworth Thomey. To me, he was known as grandpa. You may here grandpa a lot today in this eulogy. I was very close to both my grandpa and grandma and I am honored to be able to share my knowledge today with all of you about this great man. Besides all the times I spent with grandpa, I was lucky enough to be able to talk with him back in October, of 2012, to learn his complete life story. Some of what you hear today will be things that I learned during that interview. The interview was done for a college class assignment, but I got so much more out that experience than just a completed assignment. I was lucky for that opportunity.
Grandpa was born on April 21st, 1921. He was the youngest child and really his parents were rooting for a second daughter instead of another boy. So, my grandpa’s dad worked on the railroad and had a grueling schedule, which meant that grandpa decided to enter the world at time when his father was not home because he was working. So, when my great grandmother went into labor with grandpa, the neighbor gave her a ride to the hospital. That neighbor’s name was Ellsworth. So, they named grandpa after the neighbor that gave his mom a ride to the hospital. The reason for this, is because they were counting on a girl and hadn’t settled on a boy name. Grandpa told me that if the neighbor wasn’t around, then he would’ve been named John, which was a common family name. Ironically, many years later, many knew my grandpa by his nickname of John.
Grandpa grew up in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis and he told me two things that he remembered about his childhood home. The first being a mural that was painted in the dining room by Claude Elert, and second, was the crib that he slept in as a baby. He said that he specifically remembered how the knobs looked like a lion’s head.
On the weekends growing up, grandpa and his siblings would get up in the morning and play all day in the neighborhood. They would play softball, football, and skiing. On days when they had to stay indoors, he and his siblings would play hockey in the basement and they would use oatmeal boxes for shin guards.
Grandpa’s main duty in the house he grew up in was hauling ashes from the coal furnace. Before they could go out and play on Saturdays, everyone had to participate in clothes washing day, this was something my grandpa hated doing as a child.
Grandpa also told me that when he was young, if he was lucky enough to have 10 cents, he would go to a double header movie and have cereal for a snack. Grandpa’s favorite subject in school was math until he reached geometry, and then it became his worst subject. This experience was very similar for me.
After grandpa’s eighth grade graduation, his ball coach really wanted grandpa to go to the Minneapolis Millers Baseball Training Camp to try out for minor league professional baseball. Grandpa thought about it, but declined the opportunity to further his education, which he did by attending vocational school.
Grandpa did not finish vocational school because some time between 1937 and 1939, grandpa and his brothers acquired The Thomey Brothers Market, which was located on Cedar Lake Road and Oliver in Minneapolis.
My grandpa once told me a Thomey Brothers Market story. He told me that a representative from a new cola company came into the store one day and offered my grandpa the opportunity to purchase shares of stock for the new cola company at 25 cents a share. He opted not to take the risk and he said that honestly they couldn’t afford it anyways. By the way, the new cola company’s name was Pepsi.
My grandpa remembered that many of the films shown when he was young were westerns. Grandpa continued to love westerns throughout his life as he loved reading Louis L’Amour books.
Grandpa’s favorite musical artist was Frank Sinatra. He told me that every week, when he was young, he and his siblings would rush home from playing outside so they could watch the Frank Sinatra Hit of the Week.
Things got interesting for grandpa in the year 1940. My grandfather took a date to a dance out at Lake Minnetonka. His future wife, Leone, was also at that dance. They both had different dates, but ended up riding home in the same car. On Christmas Eve of 1940, my grandpa gave my grandma an engagement ring to marry my grandma for a marriage that lasted over 70 years.
In 1951, grandpa followed his dad’s footsteps and joined the railroad as a locomotive engineer. Although he was past the maximum hiring age, it was his dad’s seniority that afforded my grandpa the opportunity.
My grandparents lived in many places. They lived in New York and California and then decided to live in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. Eventually, they relocated to New Hope for more space in their home and grandpa retired from the railroad in 1975. In 1978, the sold their New Hope home and relocated to Garrison, Minnesota. Their lake home in Garrison was a place many of us here today connected to. For me personally, it wasn’t just a connection, it was special.
I was lucky. I got to spend a lot of time with grandpa. Many summers, when the school year was complete, I got to live with them in Garrison. I watched Sesame Street as a young boy as it was one of only three channels they could get. My grandpa also taught me how to fish and golf. My grandpa always took the time to be patient with me and teach me the skills I would need in life.
My grandpa taught me the importance of honesty and trust. He also taught me the importance of responsibility. My grandpa also helped me get my first job at the age of 15, which was at the Garrison Dairy Queen that no longer exists.
My pure excitement of going to lake and spending time with my grandparents was the main influence for me living north today. When I was up at the lake, it was a big deal to go to the big city of Brainerd. That is where I went with my grandparents to help them with all their shopping. There was no Baxter, just Brainerd.
The railroad must be in our blood. I say this because one of the exciting things for me about going to Brainerd was hoping to see a train going through town while we were there. There was one particular street in Brainerd that had railroad tracks going right down the middle of the street, and this fascinated me. It wasn’t until I was about 23 years old and driving to Brainerd with my grandma, Leone (Stevie), when I finally saw a train going down the middle of that street. I was giddy like a seven year old boy seeing that.
My grandfather was very particular with the games he played. He loved the game of cribbage. Again, he took the time and had the patience to teach me the game of cribbage. I would not know that game today had he not taught it to me. He loved to play the board game of Aggravation with his friends and Garrison neighbors Gordy Henderson and Bud Cochrane. I remember time and time again, grandpa playing Aggravation with Bud Cochrane. First he had to get a bathroom towel and set it up on the dining room table so the dice could roll cleanly but yet stay on the table. Second, the box top of the board game was propped against the chair at the end of the dining room table and that is what they used to throw the dice against. On occasion, the dice would not land cleanly, even on the bathroom towel, and then the brief argument ensued about which number was facing up, because every move counted because there was a dollar riding on the game.
I also remember grandpa and grandma playing Skip-Bo as their game of choice. Let me tell you, if there was one thing that tested their 70 years of marriage, it was Skip-Bo. You see, Skip-Bo was a game that they played often, mainly due to the fact that my grandma had macular degeneration in her eyes and the Skip-Bo cards had numbers big enough to read. Now, there was no bathroom towel needed for Skip-Bo because there was no dice, and this game didn’t have to be played at the dining room table like the big leagues of Aggravation. I was lucky enough to be able to play in many of these Skip-Bo games with my grandparents, and all I can say is that it was pure entertainment and that had nothing to do with the fact that it was a card game. They played so much that they made their own rules. Those rules being that you had to use a natural one and seven, which meant wild cards could not be used for those numbers, and you could not play two wild cards consecutively. If you got to witness this madness, pure entertainment.
Finally, I loved my grandpa. I already miss him so much. He was my last grandparent to be alive. My grandpa always believed in me and cared and listened to what I had to say. That mattered so much to me. My grandpa was a big family man. He loved having a crowd of people visiting their lake home in Garrison, especially if it was family. No matter how many there would be, they always would make room, make you feel welcome, and never looked at it as burden. Instead, they always were excited about family coming to see them. That was my grandpa’s world, the way it should be.
My grandfather, Ellsworth George Thomey, will always be one of my biggest inspirations and will always influence the choices that I make in life. He taught me so much and I would have been lost without those experiences. At the end of my interview with him in October of 2012, one of my questions for him was, “How do you want to be remembered?” He responded by saying, “I want to be remembered for being a good father and husband.” I want grandpa to know today, as he is with us today, that not only did do that with great success, but he also impacted so many more in a positive way.
Grandpa, I love you. I already miss you so much. Please take it easy on grandma when you play your first game of Skip-Bo with her up there.
Thank you.
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