Anne Marie Thomas

Anne Marie Thomas, age 69, died Aug. 28, 2012 after a short bout of cancer at her home in Bozeman with her family and friends around her. She was born in Ponca City, Okla. on Jan. 10, 1943. She grew up outside of Pawhuska, Okla. on the family ranch. She attended Immaculate Conception grade school and graduated from Pawhuska High School in 1961. She went to St. John's School of Nursing in Tulsa, Okla. where she met her soul mate, Ron, at a dance. They were married Dec. 26, 1963 and she graduated in 1964. They later moved to Oklahoma City, Okla. where she started her career at University of Oklahoma Medical Center Hospital. They moved to Norman, Okla. where she worked at Norman Municipal Hospital where their son, Thad, was born in 1966. After her husband's graduation from pharmacy school in 1968, they moved to Tulsa where their daughter, Laura, was born in 1970. Anne worked at St. John's Hospital in Tulsa until 1975 when they followed their dream to move to the mountains and moved to Bozeman. She worked at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital from 1985-2005 in the neonatal intensive care unit and newborn nursery. She retired in 2005. They moved to Prescott, Ariz. for one year and to Las Cruces, N.M. where her husband retired. They continued to come back to Bozeman for the summers.

Anne was active in the Gallatin Empire Lioness Club and the Sourdough Lions Club in Bozeman and the Las Cruces Host Lions Club in New Mexico. She was a member of Resurrection Parish. She loved to oil paint and shared her paintings with family and friends. She and Ron traveled in their fifth wheel trailer throughout the U.S. and Canada. She enjoyed cooking, learning about different places she lived in and visited, golf, board games and bridge.

Anne was preceded in death by her parents, Eleanor and Frantz Fronkier. She is survived by husband, Ron; son, Thad (Melanie) of Edmond, Okla.; daughter, Laura, of Sugarland, Texas; four grandchildren, Ian, Madison, Jackson and Wilson; sisters, Susan Mundy and Ellen Weigant, Mary Big Eagle, and brother, Frantz Fronkier all of Pawhuska, Okla. and numerous nieces and nephews; sisters-in-law, Velda (Rich) Pedersen of Manchaca, Texas and Bertha Thomas of Ponca City, Okla. and Kay Thomas of Clinton, Mo.

A vigil will be held at Resurrection Parish Catholic Church on Friday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012 at Resurrection Parish Catholic Church in Bozeman, with a reception following the service at the Church. Burial will be the following day at the Sunset Hills Cemetery.

The family requests memorials go to Resurrection Parish Building Fund, 1725 S. 11th Ave., Bozeman, MT 59715 or Sourdough Lions Club, 915 O'Connell Drive, Bozeman, MT 59715.

Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service, www.dokkennelson.com.