The funeral service for Johnnie Lee Thomas, age 85, will be at 2:00 P.M. Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at the Anderson-Burris Funeral Home Chapel, with Rev. Jim Jones officiating.  Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, with arrangements by Anderson-Burris Funeral Home.

       He was born to Alfred Sherman and Flora E. Thomas on December 22, 1923 in  Ardmore, and died Friday, September 4, 2009, in Enid.

       Johnnie grew up in Ardmore and graduated from Ardmore High School in 1943.  He entered the United States Navy, serving two and a half years in the South Pacific Theatre, where he participated in nine invasions starting in the Marshal Islands, Guam, Taiwan, Philippines, and finally into Shanghai, China.  He was honorably discharged in 1946.  On August 30, 1946, he married Frankie Jean Johnson.  A daughter, Sandra Lee Thomas was born on February 10, 1952.  Johnnie worked for George E. Failing Company for forty-two years, building oilfield and water well drilling equipment.  He retired in 1990.  Johnnie was a member of First Baptist Church, Enid, and Briggs Lions Club.  He was a life member of Garfield Masonic Lodge 501 and Eastern Star Chapters 452 and 36.   His hobbies were fishing, hunting and golf.  He and Lee Crawford were married in 1996 in the First Methodist Church.

     He is survived by his wife Lee of the home; two granddaughters, Andrea Dice of Blackwell and Denise McPherson of Yukon; three great-grandchildren, Kaylee Dice, Connor and Jordyn McPherson.

      He was preceded in death by his wife Frankie on December 10, 1995 and his beloved daughter Sandra Shepherd on November 20, 2002.

     Memorials may be made through the funeral home to Hospice Circle of Love or the Lions Club.