CECIL THOMPSON Cecil Amos Thompson passed away on January 14. He was born in Chico in 1926, the son of Amos and Ruth Thompson. He attended the Bidwell School and was in the class of 1943 at Chico High School. He enlisted in the Navy near the end of WWII and served as a radioman aboard amphibious aircraft in the post-war South Pacific. He returned to marry his high school sweetheart, Virginia Orendorff, in 1946. Cecil worked in the Mead orchards and held a few sales rep jobs before buying "The Academy" fountain and billiards parlor near 1st and Main Sts. in 1953. They lived on the Thompson family property between Highway 32 and Kennedy Ave. where he built a new home and had 4 sons. The family moved to Fresno in 1956, where Cecil worked first as a sales rep for Lyons Magnus Co., and later for Sweetheart Cup Corp. That job moved Cecil and family to Covina in 1967, and then to Castro Valley in 1971, where Virginia passed away in 1989. He married Nancy Kokjer in 1990 and then retired. They moved back to Chico in 1997, back to the original Thompson property on Kennedy Ave. Cecil is the 3rd generation to live on that property. He greatly enjoyed main-taining the family fruit and nut orchard there, and he loved their summer cabin in Jonesville, where many other members of his family and church also had cabins. Cecil was active in the First Christian Churches in Chico, Fresno, and Covina, where he sang in the choirs, served as an elder and also as a youth group sponsor. Cecil is survived by his wife Nancy, sister Nelda, 3 sons, 5 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchild-ren. He was as fine a husband (married a total of 70 years!) and father as there ever was. A memorial service will be held on February 18th at the First Christian Church in Chico at 11 am. Funeral arrange-ments made by Newton Bracewell, of Chico. Memorial contributions may be made to First Christian Church, Chico.



Published in Chico Enterprise-Record on Feb. 5, 2017