Services for Dewitt Thomas Sr. will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Locust Grove M.B. Church with the Rev. James Archer officiating. Burial will follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be from 1 until 6 p.m. Friday at Lakeview Memorial Funeral Home with family present from 5 until 6.

Mr. Thomas died Friday, July 29, 2011, at Shady Lawn Nursing Home. He was 71.

He was born in the Oak Ridge community to Warren Sr. and Izorah Thomas. He was a member of Holy Hill Baptist Church before joining Morning Star Baptist Church.

He was a former employee of Anderson-Tully Co. and had worked in set-up at McGraw-Edison. He owned and managed Dewitt’s Place and had also established, with his brothers, a soybean and cotton farming business.

Mr. Thomas was preceded in death by a sister, Grace Ivory; and two brothers, Lonnie D. Thomas and Jim Thomas.

Survivors include his wife, Ernestine Thomas; two daughters, Wilma Anderson and Gladys Thomas, both of Vicksburg; three sons, Anthony Williams and Dewitt Thomas Jr., both of Edwards, and Lonnie Thomas; two grandsons he reared, Malcolm Williams of Tulsa, Okla., and Terrell Davis of Vicksburg; four sisters, Eloise Ross, Ernestine Westly and Carrie Trammell, all of Vicksburg, and Chestine Thomas of Vallejo, Calif.; four brothers, Warren Thomas Jr. of Vallejo and Milton Thomas, Clarence Thomas and James Thomas, all of Vicksburg; 17 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; and nieces, nephews and other relatives, including the Thomas, Sonic, Lewis, Whetley, Palmer, Williams, Taylor and Harris families.