Emily D. Thuss

Emily was born in San Antonio in 1945 to Leroy G. and Fannie Lee Harvin Denman of San Antonio and grew up at the family home in Monte Vista with her two sisters. In childhood, she traveled in Mexico and Guatemala where she fell in love with the cultures and with the Spanish language. Riding horseback at her beloved Powderhorn Ranch in South Texas, she fell in love with the land. She was a graduate of Saint Mary's Hall and Stanford University where she attained a Bachelor's Degree with a major in English and a minor in Spanish. She and Dr. Charles John Thuss, Jr. were married the day after Valentine's Day, 1969 in San Antonio and had four sons together. Widowed in 1983, she raised her remaining sons with love, determination, grace and intelligence.

Emily was a leader in many efforts to improve neighborhoods and local communities in San Antonio. Inspired by the demolition of her childhood home on French Place, she and others founded the Monte Vista Historical Association. She later led the fight against the demolition of other homes in Monte Vista as the MVHA President and chaired the development of the Monte Vista Historical District Master Plan.

To further protect and promote the value of neighborhood housing, Emily started new projects at Habitat for Humanity, developed neighborhood leaders and served in various City positions. She co-chaired the construction of the first Habitat Women's House and co-founded the Habitat ReStore (now Home Store) to provide Habitat a stable funding source for new houses. She nurtured the development of other strong neighborhoods as the Chairwoman of the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, Organizer of the Downtown to Missions Conference, and the Chairwoman and Program Director for the Community Leadership Institute. She worked in the City to improve housing for the disadvantaged as Chair of the San Antonio Housing Trust, Commissioner on the San Antonio Zoning Commission, and as an advocate for the City's 2001 Universal Design Ordinance.

Later Emily undertook projects to support the community at large. As a Trustee of the Brackenridge Foundation, she arranged a founding grant for the University of the Incarnate Word Feik School of Pharmacy to build new career opportunities for local students while meeting a significant need in South Texas for pharmacists (particularly bilingual ones). She further supported its development as a University Trustee. Most recently she was the Executive Producer of the Building Arts Group, which published The Building Arts of South Texas: Stories of Endangered Building Arts & The Craftsmen Who Keep Them Alive. The book documents the stories of leading craftspeople who make our South Texas heritage unique and vibrant and it received a 2016 Award for Excellence from the Texas Society of Architects. She and her husband were also the founders of the Thuss Memorial Lectures in Plastic Surgery at Vanderbilt and Stanford Universities. In recognition of her contributions to San Antonio, she was inducted into the San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame in 2014.

Emily believed that anyone can be an agent for change and that helping others is the highest calling. She did just that through love, sacrifice, a graceful determination that "no" was just not an acceptable answer where the betterment of her community was at stake and a willingness to volunteer her occasionally idle sons to work with her on good causes.

Emily was predeceased by her loving parents, Leroy Gilbert Denman, Jr. and Fannie Lee Harvin Denman, her husband, Dr. Charles John Thuss, Jr., and her beloved son, Carter Noble Thuss. She is survived by her devoted partner Tommy Adams with whom she found great love and happiness and her sons Charles John Thuss, III, his wife Octavia, and their three sons Henry, Patrick, and Tobias; Wendel Denman Thuss, his wife Natalie and their four children Taylor, James, Carter, and Mae; and Andrew Leroy Thuss. She is also survived by her sisters Molly Denman Branton, her husband Jim, and their daughters Christina, Victoria and Claudia; Deirdre Denman Glober, her husband George, and their daughters Denman and Nancy; and Destine Denman Holmgreen, her husband Alan, and their sons Austin and Travis. She will be dearly missed.

A memorial service and celebration of Emily's life will be held at Christ Episcopal Church around the corner from where she grew up in Monte Vista on Friday, January 6th at 11 AM with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, The Monte Vista Historical Association, or Morningside Ministries.