John Robert Thomas, 64, died suddenly on July 27, 2023. He was a beloved son, brother, father and uncle.

John Robert, the youngest child of Aubrey and Eunice Holman Thomas, was born August 20, 1957, and raised in Cassville, MO, with an extended family of Holman and Thomas aunts, uncles and cousins. He attended Cassville High School, and graduated from Missouri State University with a degree in Business. Before retiring, he was employed by Carlton Cards, a division of American Greeting.

From his Eagle Scout experiences, he became a naturalist, and relished his time exploring and caring for his land on Roaring River. His beloved place on this land, where he fished and hunted, was his great joy and provided a family gathering place for his nephews and their families as they enjoyed time together and learned to fish with their favorite uncle.

John’s courage, determination and strength of character is captured by Jennifer Portman in the article, A Walk in the Woods Becomes a Test of Grit, published in the Springfield News-Leader, December, 1999. An excerpt of that article follows: “……this week I heard a story that tops anything I could possibly experience firsthand, and encompasses many of the things I hold most dear: the Ozarks, family, perseverance and most of all, courage.

One Saturday, two weeks before open deer season began this year, John Robert Thomas, Cassville native, decided to head down to the woods near Roaring River where he has hunted all his life to fix up deer stands.

Thomas, 42, had thought about going fly fishing that day, but instead, parked his truck on a logging road and tromped down the steep face of a hollow into the tall and uncut, boards in his arms, nails in his pocket.

He set off on his journey about 3 p.m. wearing a new fleece jacket, T-shirt, jeans and boots. The temperature was around 55 degrees, the skies cloudy with a little rain. He was alone.

Thomas was nearly to the bottom of the ravine when he lost his footing. Maybe it was one of the many loose rocks, maybe a hole. He’s not sure, since he couldn’t see his feet. But what he does know is this: the bone in his lower left leg snapped. It didn’t break the skin, but his leg below the knee just flopped.

It felt as if it were floating like a buoy in a bathtub.

He stayed on the ground a while, not believing he was really at the bottom of a hollow with a broken leg, the day waning.

He yelled for help. No one answered. That’s when he began crawling, dragging himself up the hill that even in the best times requires all fours to scale. He relied on a board he pounded a nail into for leverage, his elbows and sheer force of will. His fractured leg slithered over the brush and rocks.

Rain started pouring. He thought about dying. No one knew where he was and he likely wouldn’t be missed for days. Of all
things, he thought about presidential candidate John McCain and decided if that son of a buck could survive his prisoner of war ordeal he would not be beaten by an Ozarks hill.

He called on the Good Lord for help, careful to not make any promises he couldn’t keep. “I just had to take it in little steps,” he says. It took six hours to traverse what would take 20 minutes on two feet, but by 9 p.m. he made it to his truck — a stick-shift.

He worked the clutch with his right foot, managed to turn the truck around, got it up on the highway and made it to the hospital in Cassville, about 12 miles away. When staffers finally responded to the honking in the parking lot they were greeted by the Creature from the Black Lagoon, shaking, wet and covered with leaves.

Two weeks later, Thomas was back on the logging road. This time he stayed in the back of his truck, a cast on one leg, a walkie- talkie in one hand. On the other end of the two-way radio was his nephew, out hunting in the very same woods on the first day of deer season. ‘He wasn’t down there 30 minutes then, Boom,’ Thomas recalls, now resting with his leg up in his Springfield urban cabin. The eightpoint buck was his nephew’s first.

‘There was a deer down there, we know, and he got him,’ Thomas says proudly. ‘It was fate, I guess. You can’t believe how fortunate
I feel.’”

John Robert was caring and loving, with a great sense of humor, who was devoted and loyal to his family and friends.

He will be greatly missed by his sisters, Jo Ellen Henderson and Sara Nell Lampe, his niece and nephews, Anne Jestadt, Matthew Henderson, Thomas, William, and Michael Lampe, his daughter, Jamie, and their children and grandchildren and all those who knew him.

Our family thanks James Bryant and Mark Thomas for their loyal friendship and assistance.

John Robert’s family will honor his life in a private memorial. Memories of John Robert may be shared with Sara Nell at snlampe@gmail. com.

PAID OBITUARY