Jessie lived in Johnstown, and Altoona, Pa., before settling in East Brunswick, N.J.

Thomas was a salesman for Fuller Brush. He was fatally injured in an auto accident on Route 422, ten miles east of Indiana, Pa., following a snowfall on the early evening of January 3, 1942, before road crews cleared the route. Thomas was a passenger in a car driven by Norman Ganoe, 27, of Heilwood. The Ganoe vehicle was transporting to Indiana Hospital two men injured in a prior accident near Belsano, and Thomas was believed to have stopped to assist with the rescue. The Ganoe vehicle collided head on with a truck-tractor operated by Noah Gibson of Port Royal, Pa., that was stalled on the highway. The Ganoe car turned over and all four men within sustained injuries, but only Thomas failed to survive. The death certificate indicates that Thomas died 12:30 p.m. on January 5, 1942, at Indiana Hospital, of a fractured skull at the base, and also had a fractured lower jaw and right shoulder.

William was a cafeteria operator for the Blair County Association for the Blind and Visually Handicapped in Altoona, Pa.