Afton Garneta Dalton

Eulogy of Garneta Dalton Thomas by Rhea Dalton Mortenson.

Afton Garneta Dalton Thomas1 funeral service was held Thursday, February 1, 1990, at 11 a.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Mountain View Ward Chapel, on Lola and White Streets, North Las Vegas, Nevada. Garneta was the wife of William Shelby (Joe) Thomas (deceased).

In the southern part of Utah, there is a small village called Circleville. This lovely little valley is surrounded by towering mountains and blue, blue skies, with plenty of soft winds in the spring and summer and plenty of snow in the winter time. Even though we moved away from there over 48 years ago, the family, when we go there to visit, still refers to it as "going up home."

It was here that Garneta was born August 12, 1913 to Martin Carrell Dalton Jr. and Iva Sarah Veater Dalton. She had three bothers and three sisters; all proceeded her in death except two of her sisters, Rhea Dalton Mortensen and Syble Dalton Edvalson, who are here today.

Her children are: Anita LaRue Thomas Metcalf; James Valen Thomas of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Afton Philip Thomas (deceased); Madalene Carol Thomas Luca; Marsha Thomas (deceased); Iva JoAnna Thomas Jones; Debra Lynn Thomas Moses; and Gertrude Elaine Thomas Colvin. Garneta and Shelby had 18 grandchildren.

Garneta was a good student in school. She started elementary school in the same old rock school house that her mother and father had attended. Later this school house burned down and a new school house was built. The city also built a new high school, where all the high school age students from all over the county attended and the school was then named Piute County High. Garneta had a quick mind and she was especially good in mathematics. She graduated from high school with honors and was the Valedictorian of her school that year.

Garneta was very good at styling hair and since Circleville didn't have a beauty shop at that time as they have today, whenever there was an activity taking place in the community (church or school), all of her friends and neighbors would come to our place to get their hair done.

I guess her time would be considered the "flapper era." They wore their hair cut very short and it was curled or waved close to their head. Their dresses were very pretty but short and every girl wore a long string of pearl beads that they would swing around as they danced the Charleston. Another popular dance was the Fox Trot. Everyone loved to dance and when they didn't have a school or church dance to attend, her group would come to our home as we had a very large living room and they would dance around the table that was placed in the middle of the room.

We didn't have much money then, but neither did anyone else for these were the terrible depression years. But Garneta knew that her friends were always welcome to come to our home to make candy, or home made ice cream, drink homemade "root beer" or just to set around and listen to the stories that were told on the old fashioned radio station.

At a very young age, father taught Garneta how to ride a horse, which she loved to do, and she spent much time riding her horse. One time she was with some friends out riding and she was on her favorite horse named "Old Dove" when something spooked the horse. It tried to buck her off, then began to run. He also at the same time threw Garneta out of the saddle, but her leg was caught in the stirrup. As the horse was running out of control, she hung onto the saddle horn for dear life. Finally some of the boys in the group were able to get the horse under control, but not before a large deep cut was gashed into her leg showing the shin bone. Days later the deep cut became infected and gangrene had set in. The doctor tried different medicines, but nothing seemed to help heal the leg. Finally, the doctor told mother and dad that he would have to remove her leg to save her life. But Grandmother Charlotte Whittaker Dalton (lovingly called Nellie) wouldn't stand for that. She felt that maybe some of her homemade remedies would save the leg. Grandma Dalton sent my two brothers (Cecil and Taylor) and me to the mountains that surrounded Circleville. There we were to gather the sticky pine gum from the pine trees, which we did. Then grandmother mixed the pine gum with honey and other ingredients, then filled the gash in Garneta's leg with this remedy. This was very painful to Garneta. After many more trips to gather more gum, and Garneta lying flat on her back for several weeks, Grandmother saved Garneta's leg.

Gameta was a very pretty girl and was very popular. She had many friends and many boy friends, but in her senior year of high school she gave her heart to a handsome young man by the name of William Shelby (Joe) Thomas, and they were married August 11, 1932. Joe, as Shelby was called, played the guitar and could sing like a movie star. Sometimes his father, William Thomas, would join him and he would play the banjo. They were very good! Also, Joe and his sister Mary would sing for special occasions, and they were very much in demand to entertain at church, weddings, and special occasions.

Shortly after Joe and Garneta were married they moved into a small four room house and Garneta put her talents to work to make this small house a real home. White crisp curtains at the windows, bright bedspreads on the bed, pretty pictures on the walls and colorful cushions on the kitchen chairs. And Joe used his talents to make flower boxes for the outside of the windows which he painted white and filled with daisies and geranium flowers.

They were very happy in this first home and this is where LaRue, Jim, Phillip and Madalene were born. Garneta and Joe came to Las Vegas for better employment They moved into a home on Wilson Street where JoAnna and Marsha were added to the family. After Garneta and Shelby had moved to a brand new home on Salt Lake Street in North Las Vegas, Debra and Elaine were also added to the Thomas family.

Garneta was the peace maker of our family. Many times when we were growing up and when one of us would do something wrong, or get into mischief, as all children will do at times, and mother or dad would find out about it, she would take the blame, and also the punishment rather than see one of us take the punishment or the restriction.

She was a very unselfish person, always putting her family and children first. Debra, Madalene and LaRue mentioned how she would give them her very last dollars to purchase a pair of hose, new shoes or new blouse, if they needed it. LaRue mentioned that one time when she was fifteen years old, she had spent the summer in Circleville with grandmother Iva Dalton and when she came home, she found her mother had gone out and purchased a brand new living room set so LaRue and her sisters would have a nice room to entertain their friends.

Debra mentioned that she will never forget the time she was in trouble at school because she had played hookey from school a few times too often. So Debra called her mother and told her mother that she was in trouble and needed her to come to school "quick!" Garneta thought something terrible had happened to Debra and when Garneta looked down at her feet to find she had two different kinds of shoes (one black and one navy blue) on, she was embarrassed, but she didn't leave until she helped Debra get back into school.

LaRue, Madalene, Jim, JoAnna, Debra and Elaine, Syble and I and all the grandchildren who loved their grandmother will all suffer her departure from us. But death lies along the road to eternal progression for all of us. No one who believes in Jesus Christ and especially if you believe in the Resurrection know that your mother's spirit is already in Paradise and Paradise is not very far from us.

Think of her departure from us as her stepping on another shore and her finding it a place called Paradise and then later after the Resurrection, her taking hold of a hand and finding it to be God's hand; of her feeling invigorated after her passing from this world of storm and tempest to an unbroken calm, to peace and rest, and of being with her mother and father, to being with your Father, with her baby Marsha and Phillip and other relatives and friends and all of her progenitors that will welcome her home.

A great poet once said, "There she's gone. Other voices have taken up the glad shout. There, she is coming!" May you all find peace in your heart to know that this separation is only for a short time in God's time. Amen.