Sarah Ann Thomas

COLUMBIA Sarah Ann Tiller Thomas, age 85, left this world on Sunday, May 17, 2015, while she was working in her garden. She joined her beloved husband of 53 years, John Bryant “Bud” Thomas (deceased), in heaven. She was born on March 13, 1930, in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of Julia Livingston Tiller and Charles Eugene Tiller, Sr. of Bluff Road, a location she returned to later in life to live for over sixty years. Mrs. Thomas graduated from Lower Richland High School in 1946 and received her B.A. in Home Economics from Winthrop College in 1950. After her marriage in 1950, she was a teacher in Charleston County, S.C. and then homemaker, raising five children in Savannah, Ga. and Columbia. Sarah returned to full time work as a dietician with Richland Memorial Hospital in the 1970’s as a means of helping put her children through college. She retired from Richland Memorial in 1991 and joined her husband Bud, brother, Gene Tiller and sister-in-law, Betty Long Tiller on a series of travel adventures across America. Sarah enjoyed traveling throughout the rest of her life, often accompanied by her best friends, Betty Long Tiller and Margaret Campbell Tuttle. She and Betty attended Lykesland Grammar School through high school together, were college roommates and then sisters-in-law, and shared a wonderful lifelong friendship. Sarah fulfilled a lifelong dream of seeing the tulips in bloom in Holland this past spring on a trip there with her daughters, Julie and Jeannie. Sarah put her husband Bud at the center of her life and marriage, and they shared a deep and abiding love for each other and their large, boisterous family. Together, they taught their children the value of hard work, working together toward a common goal, family loyalty and a keen sense of equality for all. At a time when equality for women was not always present in society, Sarah set an equal expectation and then reveled in the educational attainment and professional success of all her children. Her home was a place where the coffee was always on, her delicious southern cooking and baking was shared with whomever stopped by, and there was an open invitation to sit in the kitchen and visit for a while. Her friends and large extended family saw her as the soul of southern hospitality. A child of the Great Depression and ever true to her Scottish roots, Sarah practically invented the mantra “Reuse-Recycle-Repurpose.” She loved a bargain and good shopping deal. She was an accomplished seamstress, gardener and master of southern cooking. Sarah is survived by her five adult children, Julie Ann Thomas of Atlanta, Ga., Jean Thomas Hubbard of Summerfield, N.C., Susan Bryant Thomas of Newport Beach, Calif., Betsy Thomas Hinderliter of Beaufort, S.C. and John Bryant Thomas, Jr. of Columbia. Her beloved grandchildren include Amy Hubbard of Summerfield, N.C., Tess Thomas of Charleston, S.C., Will Hubbard of Greensboro, N.C., Thomas James Thomas of Winston-Salem, N.C. and Laurel Hinderliter of Beaufort, S.C. She is also survived by her sons-in-law, Lee Hubbard and Matt Matthew Hinderliter; sisters-in-law, Janice Spann and Betty Long Tiller; as well as numerous cousins, nephews, nieces and many lifelong family friends. Sarah was preceded in death by her husband, John Bryant Thomas, Sr. and her brother, Charles Eugene Tiller, Jr. Visitation with the family will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, at Dunbar Funeral Home Devine Street Chapel, located at 3926 Devine Street in Columbia. Services will be held at the same location at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 21, 2015, with interment following in Greenlawn Memorial Park. Relatives and friends are welcome at 4920 Bluff Road in Columbia on May 21 for an afternoon gathering and reception. Memorial contributions are welcome at Carolina Children’s Home, 3201 Trenholm Road, PO Box 4465, Columbia, SC 29204, Camp Kemo c/o Richland Memorial Hospital, PO Box 602575, Charlotte, NC 28260-2575 and the Ronald McDonald House Charities, 2955 Colonial Drive, Columbia, SC 29203.