| Text |
There are many sources online that gives his birth place as New Iberia, Louisiana, but in his autobiography, he gives Lake Providence as his birth location. This is from page 3 of his autobiography - "In 1903, William Maceo Thomas married Mary Eaton. They made their home in Lake Providence, a small town in the northeastern corner of Louisiana, not too far from the Mississippi River. It was there that their fourth child, Vivien Theodore Thomas, was born on August 19, 1910. The name given came about rather naturally; still neither of my parents ever denied my own version of the story that, since their oldest child was a girl and the next two children boys, the little girl would surely come as the fourth was already named. I told my story in their presence while still a child and in later years on numerous occasions, much to the amusement of my father. My mother, who was more reserved and serious, didn't find the tale humorous, but I was never reprimanded for its telling." I personally verified this by consulting the book in April 2017. |
Taneya's Genealogy Database