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Man will be missed by family, community
Published January 1, 2009
SWEENY — Though the memories Thomas Lemon Jr.’s family has of him are many, the last moment of his life will be remembered forever, his wife said.
As Lemon was taking his last breath, a newborn baby was taking its first.
“We were in the hospital for 11 days, and every time they have a baby born, they have bells that ring throughout the hospital,” Pat Lemon said. “At 4:30 that night when he was going out, a bell was ringing for a baby coming in.”
That brought comfort to Lemon’s family as they watched the pain leave his face.
“A baby was being born at the same time that he was being taken out; that’s special,” Pat Lemon said.
The 59-year-old Sweeny City Council member and longtime minister in the city died Sunday morning. He had been ill for 18 months, but doctors had not put together all his ailments together into a single diagnosis until this month, his wife said.
Lemon was in Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital for nine days before a doctor concluded he had POEMS Syndrome, an acronym for polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal gammopathy and skin changes syndrome. It is a rare disease that attacks many systems within the body and causes the person to be in extreme pain, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders Web site, www.rarediseases.org.
He died two days after the diagnosis.
Lemon worked at Dow Chemical Co. for 39 years in many different positions, but is remembered by many people as a minister, said one of his daughters, Dedra Lemon. He was a minister for 23 years at the Third Street Church of Christ and again for five years at Pledger Church of Christ, both in Sweeny, she said.
Lemon’s youngest son, Durell, said he had many memories of his father, but the best were from road trips they would take to Atlanta to visit his sister in college.
“He always had a story to tell and he never wanted to stop,” Durell Lemon said. “He stopped twice to get chicken, and that was it. The rest of the time he’d eat crackers and water.”
Durell Lemon said the three girls in their family had a deep emotional bond with his father, and the boys were taught to be tough and strong to take care of their business.
“One thing he always said is, ‘I don’t care how much education you’ve got, if you don’t have a good name, you’re not going anywhere,’” Durell Lemon said.
Lemon took his youngest brother, Donald, into his home and raised him after their parents’ death in 1972. Donald was just 6 years old.
“He was always the head of my family. If anything happened in our family, we went to him and we went through him,” Donald Lemon said. “He was strict, he meant what he said, he was an honest man and a very Christian man. He gave a lot of himself to help other people and has done so much to help the community.”
Lemon had been a Sweeny city councilman since May 2007, and Mayor Rodney Weems said he visited Lemon while he was in the hospital the last time.
“He was very much aware of the situation, where he was, what he was looking to and his last words were cheerful, ‘Merry Christmas.’ That’s the kind of individual he was,” Weems said. “I know he’s going to be missed by family, but he’s going to be missed by the community as well.”
Lemon’s sister, Susie McKnight, said he was the cornerstone of the family and a rock to go to when in need.
“Even when my parents were living we could go to him always,” McKnight said. “When I graduated from high school, he paid for my first semester of college. That’s just the kind of person he was, he was giving, unselfish, always wanting to do what he could to help somebody. He may not have been able to solve everything, but hse’d do everything he could.
Friend and fellow councilman Neal Bess said there was no greater man than Thomas Lemon Jr..
“He was an excellent man. He loved people, and what he thought was right, he was going to fight for,” Bess said.
Lemon was preceded in death by three brothers and one sister. He is survived by his wife, 13 siblings, six children and six grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. today at Fifth Street Church of Christ in Sweeny. A wake service will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Funeral services will be Friday at 11 a.m. at Fifth Street Church of Christ. Burial will follow at Rainbow Cemetery in Sweeny.
Erin McKeon covers West of the Brazos communities for The Facts. Contact her at (979) 237-0152.
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