Staff writer
Paul Thomas went before the Marion City Council, even though he was in pain, July 19 to argue for one of his favorite hobbies — free flight.
Paul’s wife Jeanice said that he caught the free flight bug when he was 12 years old. Free flight was a popular sport in the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. But, even in Paul’s youth in the ’50s and ’60s when many people were switching to remote controlled planes, Paul still enjoyed chucking his basal wood creations into the sky.
The Newton native brought his hobby with him to Topeka and Wichita, where he became a lawyer and eventually a district judge in his 30s. When he was appointed, he was the youngest district judge in Kansas for civil cases. He stepped off the beaten path again when he gave up
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the gavel and went back into private practice as a lawyer.
“The bar association was stunned,” Jeanice said. “Nobody ran against a judge. You were set for life.”
Although the Thomases continued to live in Wichita, they found a summer home 18 years ago in Marion. Jeanice said one of the attractions for Paul was a place in the back where he could work on his planes. The Thomas’ moved into their house on North Cedar Street in Marion full-time four years ago.
“He immediately saw the place in the back for a work shop,” Jeanice said. “As his health deteriorated he went out there less and less.”
This past year, Paul had been bedridden with an ailment and developed compression fractures in his back. The fractures painfully shrank his spine, making him shorter.
He continued to suffer intense pain even with medication. The medication hid a deadly disease — pre-leukemia. By the time doctors diagnosed leukemia, the disease had spread. It was this disease and incredible pain that Paul suffered through when he talked to the City Council.
Paul had helped bring the Heart of America Free Flight Association’s model aviation event to the Marion Municipal Airport Father’s Day weekend 2009. He wanted to bring the organization back in June but the council denied the request because the trucks used in 2009 created ruts in the ground around the airport after it rained that weekend.
Paul felt it was important enough to use all his energy to persuade the council to allow the event to be held at the Marion airport in the fall.
The council eventually relented but Paul would not get to enjoy another free flight event — he died Aug. 27. He was 66 years old.
Jeanice said Paul had a great sense of humor. Only a week before he died and sensing that the end was near he said:
“Damn, I’m not going to be able to see that last Harry Potter movie.”
One of his favorite jokes was about an old man who prayed to God for a winning lottery ticket. One day a heavenly voice boomed from the sky and said:
“Abe, meet me half way. Buy a ticket!”
Paul would have found it ironic that Jeanice was going to be the one to finish his work with the free flight event. She said she has never understood the fascination with free flight; she wouldn’t want to work that hard on something and then watch it crash and shatter on impact.
“It’s a sport for people who like to take chances,” Jeanice said. “It’s like fishing, you may spend a lot of time out there with no rewards.”
Now, she has met the free flyers half way. She set the date for the event Oct. 2 and 3, away from the busy Marion weekends in September. She went to Mayor Mary Olson and asked if she would speak Saturday morning for the first day of the competition.
She talked to the owners of the Country Inn Motel to provide accommodations for the visiting competitors. She visited with Gretchen Unruh and asked if she would open Gretchen’s Taste of Heaven on Sunday to allow the flyers to eat before the second day of competition. She also set up a time for all the flyers to meet at Stone City Café for drinks that Saturday night.
Jeanice has put in the work to give the Heart of America Free Flight Association a chance to stage their event because it meant so much to her husband of 43 years.
“I couldn’t not do it,” she said.
The Heart of America Free Flight Association chose the Marion airport as its site because it gives the flyers a vast open area away from power lines. They originally staged their event at a former airport in the Kansas City Area.
“If a plane catches a thermal and goes on its going to end up on somebody’s barbecue grill,” Jeanice said.
One of the reasons Paul wanted the event in Marion was because it gave him a chance to give something back to the community that welcomed him and Jeanice. Jeanice said Marion residents have always been friendly toward them. Paul wanted to bring in business.
Jeanice is going to try to sell Paul’s unfinished plane kits to competitors at the event, but she is not going to stop being a champion of free flight in Marion. She is going to continue organizing the event until someone comes along to promise to allow it to continue.
“I think Marion will host it for years and years to come,” she said.