Kenneth Thomason

Kenneth Love Thomason, 97 of Memphis, Tennessee passed from this life on Thursday May 30, 2024. Ken was born at home on Spencer’s Hill in the Enterprise Community outside Mt. Pleasant, Maury County, Tennessee April 17, 1927. During WW2 at age 17, he voluntarily enlisted in the US Navy (to keep from being drafted into the Army) and was stationed stateside on the USS Corson. After discharge from the Navy, he moved to Memphis to attend Mohler Barber College on the GI bill where he graduated in November 1949.

Ken worked as a barber in Memphis from December 1949 until he retired in 2005, and he served as the President of the Haircutter’s Credit Union for 12 years. He was a member of the Church of Christ at White Station for 69 years. He served White Station first as a deacon and then as an elder from January 1984 until January 2008.

His family says his barber chair became a therapist’s couch for many members of the church and community. Ken was always ready to learn and adapt to whatever came his way in life. As a barber he learned new techniques of hair cutting as styles changed over his 56 years of barbering. He enrolled in community college at age 45 to learn how to better manage his bookkeeping duties for his barber shop. He learned technology—how to use a computer, then an iPad and an iPhone. He learned how to text and do FaceTime on his phone. At age 80, he started and led an exercise class for seniors at his church. He drove church members to doctor’s appointments, the hospital and grocery store. He told his children and grandchildren, “we all have the same 24 hours a day and it is up to us how we choose to use it.”

He is preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Billie Cummings Thomason; his parents, James Edward Porter Thomason and Elsie Holbert Thomason; three brothers and a sister, James Unseld Thomason, Chesley Herbert Thomason, David Thomason and Jeanette Thomason Cole; and a stepson Cory Wolfe.

He is survived by his wife of 14 years, Carolin Wolfe Thomason and two daughters Pamela (Ed) Mosby and Beth (Charlie) Michael; 7 grandchildren, Holly (Glen) Hall, Rachel (Chris) Vendetti, Abigail Mosby, Nick (Kelsey) Michael, and Max (Laura) Michael and 5 great-grandchildren, Wesley Hall, Makenzie Hall, Isabella Vendetti, Josephina Vendetti, Ruby Michael, Sage Michael, and Billie Michael. He is also survived by one brother-in-law, Eddie (Rosanne) Haughey; as well as a stepdaughter Cheryl (Neil) McBride, stepson Chris (Julie) Wolfe, 8 step-grandchildren, and 2 step- great grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life will be held on June 29, 2024, at 2:00 pm at the Church of Christ at White Station, 1106 Colonial Rd. in Memphis and interment at Memorial Park South Woods cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Kenneth L. and Billie C. Thomason Endowed Scholarship Fund at the Harding School of Theology, 1000 Cherry Road, Memphis TN 38117 or Memphis Harding Academy, 1100 Cherry Road, Memphis, TN 38117.