*Sam Thomas Dies News-Star (See below)
*Memorial service is held for developer, banker and philanthropist Sam Thomas. News-Star (See Below)

Samuel M. Thomas
Kilpatrick Funeral Home
Lamy Lane - Monroe, LA

Memorial services for Mr. Samuel M. Thomas of Monroe will be a 2:00 p.m., Friday, October 30, 1998 at the First Baptist Church of West Monroe with Dr. David F. Uth officiating, and Sen. John Breaux giving the eulogy, under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home, Monroe.

Mr. Thomas died Wednesday, October 28, 1998 after a lengthy illness. He was born in Shreveport, LA on May 28, 1930. Sam attended Jefferson Military School and later attended Louisiana Tech University studying business and remained loyal to LA Tech by later becoming President of the Tech University Tower Club and a benefactor of the Thomas Assembly Center. As a young businessman he enjoyed membership in the Jaycees. Mr. Thomas was a career businessman with interest in retail, commercial development and banking. He started his career with his family business the Sam Thomas Mercantile in Quitman, LA. In 1962 Mr. Thomas founded and organized Jackson Parish Hospital in Jonesboro, LA in the 60s and 70s he organized and was chairman and president of several banks in North Louisiana. In the late 60s he served as chairman on the LA State Commerce and Industry Board under former Gov. Jimmy Davis. Also in the late 60s he served as chairman of the Small Business Administration National Board. During the Treen and Edwards administrations he was chairman of the LA Superdome Commission. He was a dedicated Vice-President and Director of the National Board of Hansen Disease and Chairman of the Association for Retarded Citizens, Monroe Chapter.

Mr. Thomas is survived by his wife Nita Chapman Thomas, Monroe; daughter: Patty Harper and her husband, Jerry, Shreveport; son: Sam Thomas III, Dallas, TX; son: Joe Thomas and wife, Robin, Monroe; and daughter: Libbi Thomas, Monroe; two sisters: Irene Muller and husband, Oke, Conroe, TX; and Bettye Phillips, Ruston; one brother: Harold Thomas and his wife Philomena, Quitman; grandchildren: Sam Thomas IV and Patrick Thomas, both of Ruston; Laura Harper and Jay Harper, both of Shreveport; Sarah Thomas, Emily Thomas, and Joseph Thomas, all of Monroe; numerous nieces, nephew, and many friends.

The family's charity of choice is the Association of Retarded Citizens of Monroe.

By GREG HILBURN
Business Writer
Sam Thomas walked with governors. He joined hands with Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton in the 1970s to grow the monster discount store chain.
But his greatest legacy, say those who knew him, will be the booming Interstate 20 business corridor in West Monroe.
"Sam was a visionary," West Monroe Mayor Dave Norris said of Thomas, who died Wednesday morning from a heart attack. "That's what struck me most about him.
"He could see the potential in properties that others couldn't see. He was two or three steps ahead of everyone else."
Thomas had suffered from diabetes for 30 years. During the past two years he was on dialysis three days a week for kidney failure. He was 68.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete late Thursday under direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Homes on Lamy Lane in Monroe. Visitation is from 5-7 p.m. today at the funeral home.
Thomas was born in Jackson Parish, where in 1949 he began the first of three careers. He expanded the family business - Sam Thomas Mercantile at Quitman - to stores in Ruston, Jonesboro and Monroe.
"He always kept his Jackson Parish ties," his wife, Nita, said Wednesday. "That was important to him."
Thomas and his brother Harold later got into the banking business, chartering Hodge Bank and Trust in 1964. He eventually would serve as chairman or director at banks across northern Louisiana, from Shreveport to Bastrop.
But he would leave his lasting business impression as a real estate developer, beginning in earnest when Walton walked into the First National Bank of Ruston in 1970 looking for Thomas.
"He said he'd heard I was the man who could help him put a store (in Ruston)," Thomas said in a 1996 News-Star interview. "We ate lunch and worked off a legal pad. I still have the initial drawings in my file."
That Ruston store was the first Wal-Mart in Louisiana, but not the last time Thomas and Walton would join forces.
"All I had to do was call (Walton) and mention a town," Thomas said.
It was during the late 1980s and '90s that Thomas began developing the land off the I-20 service roads in West Monroe. Now Thomas Road is a booming retail center, with rows of restaurants, a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Super K-mart Center.
"Individually he did more to develop that area than anybody," said Jack Fluck, Monroe Realtor and friend of the developer.
Fluck talked to Thomas just last week.
"He wasn't feeling well. You could tell that, but he was as upbeat as ever," he said.
While Thomas was building careers in banking and real estate, he was also establishing a reputation as a behind-the-scenes titan in Louisiana politics.
He single-handedly retired former Gov. Edwin Edwards' $6 million 1984 campaign debt by organizing a $10,000-a-seat trip to Paris. U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., will deliver his eulogy.
"We were very good political and personal friends," Edwards said. "He had good times and bad times, but he was always a survivor."
Norris was once in Baton Rouge with Thomas in the Capitol.
"Everybody, from the man who shined shoes to the senators, knew who he was," Norris said. "And he knew them. I never met anybody who knew more people and could remember more names and faces."
Fluck said, "Oh, yes, he was connected."
Thomas' power, and his larger-than-life personality, could be intimidating.
"He invoked very strong feelings from people, one way or the other," Fluck said.
Wiley Hilburn Jr., a News-Star columnist and head of the Louisiana Tech Journalism Department, considered himself Thomas' friend.
"Some people seemed to be afraid of him, but to me he was just a big, friendly bear of a man," Hilburn said.
He said Thomas often used his political influence and money to benefit Tech: Thomas Assembly Center is named after his father. But he often anonymously helped individuals.
"He related to those who had to fight for what they earned because that's what he had to do," Hilburn said. "He wasn't part of what he called 'the aristocracy.' "
That's one of the legacies his daughter Pattie Thomas Harper hopes will last.
"He always rooted for the underdog," she said.

Memorial service is held for developer, banker and philanthropist Sam Thomas.
By JIMMY HATTEN
State Editor
They remembered entrepreneur Sam Thomas of Monroe Friday as a busy and successful man who didn't allow work to steal his family from him.
The life and times of Thomas, developer, banker and philanthropist, were recalled at a memorial service at West Monroe Baptist Church.
Longtime friend U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-Crowley, delivered the eulogy. Dr. David F. Uth, pastor, officiated at the service.
Thomas, who parlayed the family business, Sam Thomas Mercantile in Quitman in Jackson Parish, into a banking and development empire, died Wednesday after a long illness.
In his 68 years he helped direct and sustain the political careers of such legendary figures as former Gov. Jimmie Davis, former Gov. Edwin Edwards and Breaux himself.
"There are friends who pretend to be friends but there is a friend who sticks closer than a father,'' Breaux quoted from Proverbs.
"Sam Thomas was such a friend," Breaux told the audience filled with family and business, education and political associates of high stature as well as people of modest means.
For his part, Uth turned to biographer Carl Sandberg, who wrote of Abraham Lincoln, "You really never know how big a tree is until it falls.''
Uth also read from essays about Thomas written by family members. Those expressions, he said, made more impact than either he or Breaux could make.
The remembrances told of intimate family gatherings, Thomas' expressions of love for the children and his determination to spend quality time with the ones he cared for even as the pressures of business weighed heavily on him.
Breaux said when he was embarking on his race for the Senate he remarked to Thomas that it was good to have friends like him in North Louisiana.
"Congressman, I'm your only friend up here," Thomas responded, illustrating the heavy campaigning Breaux had ahead of him in this part of the state.
Even when he was ill, Thomas kept making calls from his hospital bed, Breaux said, "using two telephones."
"He kept asking me, 'Senator, how's the crowd?' I'm sure if he could see this audience he would say to Saint Peter, 'It's a great turnout. Be sure to get all the names.' "
Breaux said, "He was a man who put a lot of life into his 68 years.''