Thomas "Tom" James Atkins

Thomas James “Tom” Atkins of Groesbeck, passed at the Temple Veterans Hospital on Thursday, December 13, 2018, at age 85. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 in the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, with visitation beginning at 4:00 P.M. and the Funeral service beginning at 6:00 P.M  Tom was born May 30, 1933 to Elby and Berta Atkins and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota.  After school, Tom joined the U. S. Air Force where he served from 1951 through 1953.    Some of his duties included driving for a general.   While in the service at James Connelly Air Force Base in Waco, he met a Limestone County girl, Bonnie Carpenter.  They married in St. Paul, Minnesota on December 27, 1952 and made their home there.     After Tom’s honorable discharge, he went to work for the railroad in Minnesota, where he worked for more than twenty years.   He enjoyed taking his family out fishing on the Minnesota lakes, and he really enjoyed a trip with the girls to Canada.  Tom left the railroad to open a sporting goods store in Wyoming, MN.  Tom had always loved fishing and was a natural in working with the customers on sporting equipment.   After ten years, he sold the store so he and Bonnie could move to Limestone County where she could be closer to her aging parents (and have warmer winters.)  They made many enjoyable trips to see their children and grandchildren in Minnesota through the later years.  The land they bought outside Groesbeck was prior to the development of Lake Limestone.  When it was built near them, it was lucky for Tom who still loved fishing.  He worked a few years for Hobbs Bonded Fibers, and then he took up another occupation.   He bought and sold pecans, peaches and watermelons.   He would sell from fruit stands, here and other places in Texas including Tyler, and he also took pecans to Minnesota to sell while he and Bonnie visited the family.  In addition to loving to travel with Bonnie, he liked to visit Bonnie’s family at the Walker Reunions and he just liked talking to people.    He had many friends because he was a friendly man.    He was a wonderful husband to Bonnie especially during her final fourteen years of failing health, when he did all the cooking, cleaning and her personal care Tom was preceded in death by his brother Elby (Bud) Atkins and sister Barb; son, Lawrence Atkins; grandson, Shawn Morgenstern; wife, Bonnie Atkins; and daughter, Pam Hayne. He is survived by three daughters and sons-in-law: Joycelynn and James Gray of Denison, Melody and Richard Ryan of West Bend, WI, and Dana and Mike Daly of St. Paul, MN; eight grandchildren:  Jessica Padilla, Jason Gray, Thomas Atkins, Jr., Cameron Atkins, Carl Thompson, Crystal Navarrete, Joe Morgenstern, and Richard Ryan, Jr.; fourteen great grandchildren; three great-great grandchildren; and a brother and sister, David Atkins and Marlena Seiford and their spouses.