Lloyd Arthur Thompson, 92, a long time resident of Moore, Oklahoma died peacefully on Saturday morning, July 28, 2007. His funeral will be held at The First Baptist Church in Moore on Wednesday, August 1st at 2:00 in the afternoon, with Paul Box presiding. Internment will be following at the City of Moore Cemetery. Viewing will be Tuesday from 8am until 9pm at Sunny Lane Funeral Home.

Mr. Thompson was born on October 22, 1914 to Arthur William and Ida Grace (Livergood) Thompson in Blackburn, Oklahoma in Pawnee County. After growing up in Stillwater, where his grandfather George M. Thompson was mayor, he graduated from Jennings High School. He was a basketball standout, known to the team as 'Tommie Thompson". His parents owned and operated grocery stores around the Stillwater and Tulsa area during the Great Depression. He had many stories of families who relied on the stores for survival and paid for their groceries with chickens and homemade items.

The family moved to Tulsa where he met and married Christine L. Lewis. They had two sons, Jimmy and Charles, then moved to Norman in 1941 to find work as a lineman climbing electric poles on what later became the Norman Naval Air Training Station. He then became an electrician at the base during the war. At the end of WW II he and his family moved to Moore to open the 77 Drive In Cafe which they owned and operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until 1963. During that time he also started, owned and operated Moore's first movie theater, skating rink, bowling alley, and was the publisher of the Moore Monitor, the community's local newspaper.

In 1957, he and his partner Lawrence Kelley started Kelley–Thompson Builders and Developers to satisfy the housing demand from teachers moving to the Moore Schools due to the rapidly expanding school system. He was able to procure the first FHA housing loans for Moore. The real estate company was a great success, with Moore being recognized as the fastest growing city in the United States during that time. He continued as a real estate developer and investor throughout his life and still owned property in the original townsite section of Moore. Many people remember their time spent as a guest of the 'Lazy T", a cabin he built on Beaver Lake in Arkansas, where fishing and eating were the favorite past times.

Mr. Thompson was an active community volunteer, starting Moore's first little league baseball organization and was charter president of the Moore Lion's Club. He was a 32nd Mason and was one of the founders of the Moore Masonic Lodge. He was a founding member of the Moore Homebuilders Association and also served many years on the board of directors of The Exchange National Bank of Moore.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Christine, who passed away in 1993. He is survived by his sons, Jimmy of Lexington, Charles of Moore and his best friend Virginia Kirkpatrick, also of Moore. He is also survived by three grandsons and six great-grandchildren. He is also survived by numerous other relatives and friends from around the country. The pall bearers will be from the Moore Fire Department.

Published in The Oklahoman

August 1, 2007