McNew Islam Thomas
McNew Islam Thomas was born on 4 October 1942 at Talihina, Le Flore County, Oklahoma, the son of Impson Mataha Thomas and Lizzie Mae Wilson. Both parents were Choctaw. His father was on the Dawes roll as a full-blood, and his mother had grown up in a Choctaw-speaking home at Doaksville and learned English at thirteen. McNew was the sixth of their ten children. He grew up at Corinne and Kiamichi in Pushmataha County, on the farm his father worked.
On 13 April 1950 the census taker found the family at Kiamichi: Impson, written down as Dempsey M. Thomas, 50, a farmer; Lizzie M., 43; and six sons at home, Wrighteman W., 18, Jimmy R., 12, Cartenright S., 10, McNew I., 7, Lester B., 5, and Emerson J., 2. Every one of them was entered as Indian. The two older girls, Hazel and Ruby, had already left the house. He went to school in Pushmataha County from 1947 to 1959.
On 4 May 1962 he married Nadine at Hugo, Choctaw County. They were married sixty-one years. They had three daughters, Ruby Gay, Paula and Eva, and an adopted daughter, Carolyn. He went by Mac. He trained as a licensed practical nurse and spent his working life at Pushmataha Hospital in Antlers, where, in the words of his obituary, "his kindness and skill will be long remembered." He lived at Antlers through the 1990s and at Lane, in Atoka County, from about 2006.
He collected and admired Native American art and crafts, played the guitar and sang in church, and camped and fished. He died on 7 September 2023 at McAlester, aged 80. The family gathered at Serenity Funeral Service in Antlers on 14 September, and the funeral was held on 16 September 2023 at Church of the Rock in Lane. He was buried at Corinne Cemetery, where his parents and his brothers Jimmy Ray and Wrightsman lie.
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "McNew Islam Thomas (1942-2023)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/mcnew-islam-thomas-1942-2023-2c7db1.