Grandmother Thomas

Alfreda Ann Thomas, nee Hoagland, was born on March 5th, 1921. She began her life in Comanche, OK, but spent most of her childhood in Oklahoma City. Her parents Ted and Euna owned a neighborhood grocery store. Even though Alfreda was a shy and studious child, she had a lovely sense of humor even as a youngster. She was kind and caring. As her sister Teddy has said, "There wasn't a bad bone in her body!" Alfreda played the violin and in high school excelled in math and history. She was also an enthusiastic member of the Red Skirts which supported the school's various sports teams and there developed a lifelong love for playing tennis.

At the beginning of World War II, she joined the WACs. After being introduced to Jay Tol Thomas by her sister, they married. They then moved to New Orleans where Jay Tol worked installing and maintaining radars on submarines during the war. Jay received an academic scholarship to Harvard, so they moved soon after to Cambridge, Mass, where he studied physics and she studied math at Boston University. Their 1st child Jan was born right after WWII ended.

Eventually the family moved to Illinois where Jay taught physics at Knox College. Their 2nd child Jeffrey was born there. Then they moved to New Jersey where Jay received his PhD at Rutgers University. Then another move back to Millis, Massachusetts, where daughter Kimberley was born.

Alfreda, known by her friends as Freddie, returned to work as a math teacher once the family had settled after another move to Winchester, Mass. Freddie always felt strongly about a woman's right to her reproductive health and volunteered at Planned Parenthood. She also donated to World Wildlife Organizations. Eventually she began working with computers, first as a programmer, later as a computer analyst.

After another move to Palos Verdes Estates south of LA, she improved her tennis game and also played squash. Back to the east coast in Alexandria, Virginia, Freddie began working for RAC as a programmer and then moved on to working for the Department of Defense at Fort Belvoir as a computer expert. With the sudden and unexpected death of her husband, she sold the house and she and Kim moved to Reston, Virginia, where she stayed until retirement from the government.

When her youngest, Kim, moved to Oakland, California, Freddie decided to follow and they set up in a duplex together in 1991. There Freddie did tax consulting, gardening and was treasurer for the Oakland Lawn Bowling Club. She was also an avid player and won a number of trophies for club. She and Kim took many vacations together as they shared an interest in art, architecture and the great outdoors.

Throughout her later years she made over a dozen trips to England with Elder Hostel. She loved English history and culture and was a true anglophile. She enjoyed reading, especially biographies. Winston Churchill was her "historical hero". She once told her daughter Kim (who moved to London in 1997) that one of the reasons she had joined the WACs at the outset of the war was that she had hoped she would be transfered to London to help the war effort there.

It seems only right and fitting that she died in London on December 4th, 2009, having been cared for in her final days by Kim and Kim's partner, Carol. She leaves behind her sister Teddy, daughters Jan and Kim and son Jeff, grandchildren Keira and Teddy, Terry and Megan and great grandchildren Collier, William, Evan and Milo.