of Hughes, AR

March 21, 1938 - September 26, 2020

Gail Evans Thomson of Greasy Corner, Arkansas was born March 21, 1938 in Jonesboro, Arkansas to Willis Clarke and Jane Altman Evans. She entered into rest Saturday, September 26, 2020 at the age of 82.

Gail established Gayfields Welsh Ponies in the 1960's and bred and registered hundreds of ponies that found homes with children and adults throughout the United States. Her ponies were National Show Champions many times over. She served as President of the Welsh Pony and Cob Society of America for many years and served decades on its Board of Directors. Gail vitalized show competitions for Welsh Ponies in the United States by designing and establishing the Society's high-point system for year-end awards and lifetime achievement awards. In 2009, Gail became only the second American citizen honored by an invitation to judge breeding classes at the Royal Welsh Show in Wales, the home of Welsh Ponies, which she did.

Gail worked for the United States Postal Service starting in her twenties as a ''temporary part-time substitute clerk'' working sixty hours a week in Hughes, and progressed to serve as Postmaster at Post Offices in Chatfield, West Memphis, and for many years in Hughes, where she was Postmaster until retirement. Gail's spiritual home has been the Hughes United Methodist Church for more than sixty years.

She is preceded in death by her first husband Joseph Dewitt Morris, her sister Janet Evans Holdcraft, and her parents Willis and Jane Evans.

She is survived by her beloved husband Arthur Duncan Thomson of Greasy Corner, Arkansas, by her daughters Dyke Morris Arboneaux (Lloyd Joseph Arboneaux) of Nashville, Tennessee and Janet Morris McGehee (Jamie McGehee) of Memphis, Tennessee, by her six grandchildren Jack Evans Montgomery (Ellie Hastings) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Robert Emmett Montgomery IV (Abigail Montgomery) of Livingston, Montana, Suzanne Dunbar McGehee and Marion Morris McGehee of Memphis, Tennessee, Madalyn Grace Arboneaux of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Olivia Rose Arboneaux of Nashville, Tennessee, by her great-grandson Robert Emmett Montgomery V, by her many other relatives, by dear friends she considered part of her family despite a lack of blood ties, including most especially Clay Clayton, the son she never had, who helped show and manage her many pony ''children'' at Gayfields Welsh Ponies, which was her life's work.

A graveside service will occur Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at 10:30am at Crittenden Memorial Park, 2206 US-64, Marion, Arkansas. Gail has a new great-grandchild on the way and family members with pre-existing conditions that could make Covid-19 dangerous for them, so the family requests that all who decide to gather with them wear masks and do their best to maintain safe distance from each other to keep all those she loved safe.

Memorials can be sent to:

Hughes United Methodist Church
P. O. Box 326
Hughes, AR 72348

or to:

Welsh Pony and Cob Foundation
720 Green Street
Stephens City, VA 22655

- Please Note -

Roller-Citizens Funeral Home will be following guidelines issued by the Arkansas Department of Health and the CDC regarding COVID-19. Social distancing of at least six feet must be practiced and all funeral attendees must provide and wear their own masks.

Obituary Provided By:
Roller-Citizens Funeral Home
201 North Pine Street
West Memphis, AR  72303
www.rollerfuneralhomes.com