Obituary written by JoAnn Hopper, JHopper494@aol.com

Thaddeus Milton Ricketson passed away at his home in Dallas, June 22, 2001. Funeral services will be June 25, at 1: p.m. at Putnam's Funeral Chapel in Kingsland, Texas. Burial will be at Hoover's Valley Cemetery beside his wife Beulah Mae who died June 5, 2001.

Thaddeus Milton (Thad) Ricketson was born November 20, 1906, to Abner and Luraney Ricketson near Kingsland, Burnet County, Texas. The youngest of eleven children, he attended school at Wolf's Crossing, and after graduation, he moved to California to join an older brother and sister, Jack and Leona. He lived and worked in Antioch, CA, during part of the depression before returning to Texas. Times were still hard, so he worked for a while on the Buchanan Dam project. November 7, 1936, he married Beulah Mae Ricketson, daughter of William Manning and Myrtle Cummings Ricketson.

As a young man, Thad was known for his musical talent. He and his brother, Cleburn, and several friends formed a dance band, playing for festive occasions throughout the area. Thad, a piano player, was much in demand, and Beulah Mae, his new wife, loved to dance. He continued playing for dances until the pressures of fatherhood kept him home.

Thad and Beulah Mae lived in Burnet County, between Marble Falls and Kingsland, farming and ranching in the old family tradition. In 1944, they bought a place between Lampasas and Burnet. By this time they had two daughters, Jo Ann (1939) and Betty Joyce (1942). During the war, Thad continued his farming/ranching operation and worked at Camp Hood, a growing military base that housed German prisoners of war

During the drought of the early 50's, Thad went to work for Lone Star Gas Company and continued to operate the farm/ranch on the side. In 1951, Thad and Beulah welcomed a son, Larry Thaddeus Ricketson, to their family. In 1955, the Ricketsons moved to Burnet, to be closer to Thad's work, but he was transferred Temple, Texas, in 1958.

Thad retired from Lone Star Gas Company in 1972, and he and Beulah returned to their home in Burnet, where Thad earned quite a reputation as a gardener, especially of tomatoes, until 1992 when declining health and pressure from their children convinced them to move to Dallas with Betty.

Thad Ricketson was the ninth generations of Ricketson men in this country, beginning with William, a Quaker, who came to Rhode Island from England in the mid 1600s. Later the family settled in MA. while Thad's line of the family eventually migrated to GA after the American Revolution. After the Civil War his grandfathers brought their families to Texas, settling in Burnet and Llano Counties.

Thaddeus Milton Ricketson is survived by his son, Larry Thaddeus Ricketson, of Arlington, and two daughters, Betty Joyce Mayeur of Dallas and Jo Ann Hopper and her husband, Robert, of Salado. He is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews and their families.

He is preceded in death by his wife Beulah Mae, mother and father, Abner and Luraney, brothers, John Allen Wilbern, Logan, Ben, Jack and Cleburn Ricketson and sisters Minnie Lesher, Olga Haile, Ophelia Harwell, Leona Hoover, and Myrtle Fluitt.