Visitation will be held on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 from 10:00 AM until 8:00 PM.

Memorial Services were held at 11:00 AM Mountain Time on Thursday, December 20, 2012 at the First Baptist Church in Clayton, New Mexico with Rev. Kyle Bueermann, pastor and Rev. Billy Rammage, Retired Pastor, officiating. Arrangements were under the direction of Hass Funeral Directors of Clayton.

Imogene Price Thoma (1920-2012) passed away peacefully in her sleep on December 15 in her home in Dallas, Texas. She was born to J. Dee and Carrie Evolyn Price on the family's homesteaded ranch in Mt. Dora, New Mexico.

After attending school in Mt. Dora and Grenville, NM, Imogene graduated from New Mexico State University. She was working for the U.S. Home Extension Service in Roswell, NM, when she met and later married her husband, Edward C. Thoma. After running the Mission Trading Post there, they moved in 1950 to a ranch in Wheeless, Oklahoma, 20 miles west of Boise City. There, the Thoma family reared two children while running a successful cow-calf operation, which Imogene successfully managed on her own with the help of her neighbor Bob Dawson after her husband's early passing in 1965.

Imogene returned to Mt. Dora in 1975 when she purchased from her brother the family ranch on which she was born and raised. She continued to manage the ranch remotely from Dallas beginning in 2001 after moving there to receive medical treatment and live near her daughter's family.

Imogene was of a generation that grew up on truly new land; her family's homestead initially had no fences and no buildings, and was far from civilization, but her family turned it into it a lasting, profitable enterprise. When she and Edward moved to the ranch in Wheeless, it was a point of pride that they turned a run-down, deteriorated ranch into a productive cattle operation with a new house and corrals. One of the few points of pride she allowed herself was to note that it was one of the best-fenced ranches in Oklahoma.

Both in Wheeless and after her return to the family homestead in Mt. Dora, Imogene always had great respect for the land and never abused it. In dry years, she sold her cattle early than overgraze the land, and she always made sure her fences, corrals and other improvements were well maintained.

Her lasting legacy may be in the impact that she had on other people. Never one to complain or criticize, Imogene always put others before herself. Her kindness and love for others touched not only those she knew well, but also those who were only fortunate enough to meet her a few times. Her mother was a pastor's daughter, and learning from her example, Imogene always found great strength and comfort in the word of God.

Imogene's life was full of stories that no longer occur today. Because the school bus had no seat for her and she was too shy to sit on another child's lap, Imogene rode a "too-tall" horse to school almost every day, keeping a bucket at home and at school so that she could climb up and down. In her later years, she used a bucket to climb in and out of her pickup trucks to drive through her pastures and check on her cattle and windmills.

Though Imogene was shy, she was valedictorian of her middle and high school classes. She attended college and worked for the government at a time when such achievements were uncommon for women, but she never spent time thinking or talking about her own accomplishments. Imogene was much more comfortable talking about others than herself.

She lived through the terrors of the Dust Bowl, her family persisting only because most of their land was still grassland and therefore did not blow away. Those hard times instilled in her an unshakeable work ethic and a frugal nature, a respect for the land, and a deep thankfulness for the blessings that God bestowed upon her. Despite many hardships, she remained an optimist.

Later in life, Imogene twice defeated cancer and survived for 11 years on dialysis after kidney failure. It was one of her great regrets that improvements in modern medicine such as coronary bypass surgery came a few years too late to help her beloved husband who died of heart failure in 1965. Imogene never remarried and said that she still thought of Edward every day.

When her brother perished in a plane crash in the late 1990s and her daughter Gail was killed in an automobile accident in 2009, Imogene grieved deeply, but devoted herself to settling their affairs and helping her family move forward.

Imogene is survived by her son Carl, daughter-in-law Marilynn, and son-in-law Dan Patterson; her grandchildren Margo and Mark Thoma, Carrie and Cody Patterson; her great-granddaughter Teresa Thoma; and her nephews Bob and Bill Price and their families. She will be deeply missed by all.

MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to a charity of the donor's preference in honor of Imogene Thoma.