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Lee leader's devotion to community praised

• A Lee County native is remembered for his service to family, county and country.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

LEESBURG — If those who knew Thomas Page Tharp best could say just one thing about the man, it would likely be that he was the face of Lee County.

And having bestowed such a title upon him, those friends would say Tharp was of the utmost integrity; of wit; of family; of God and country and county, and of the service of those.

But those close to Tharp didn’t restrict themselves Monday to one-word descriptions.

“Just the qualities that I have said about him, those are the things you are proud to claim as your friend,” said Opal Cannon, Tharp’s longtime neighbor and a friend of 55 years.

“He was certainly dependable,” said Robert Clay, a friend of Tharp’s since grammar school. “He was born here and lived here all of his life, and he loved this community and was devoted to it.”

Tharp died Sunday after a brief battle with small-cell carcinoma. He was 77.

His obituary told the story of man who was a member of Emory University Glee Club; was Lee County treasurer from 1952-1992 (his father was treasurer from 1918-1952), a clerk of the Lee County Board of Commissioners and the city of Leesburg and a member of public and private health care boards; served in the Korean War; and was devoted Christian and family man.

Tharp was a nature lover, a traveler, a storyteller. He loved music and theater; he loved his wife, his children and his grandchildren.

Tharp rode a camel in Morocco, said son Jeffrey L. Tharp of Marietta, and he visited Cuba. He spent two high school summers working at a New York lakeside resort, “kind of like one of those ‘Dirty Dancing’ resorts, but this was the ’40s ... and somewhat uncommon for the era,” he said.

Tharp’s widow, Patricia Dunaway Tharp, said it was God’s will that led her to teach at Lee County High School in 1954, and to Tharp, whom she met through church.

“We had a speedy courtship, dated nearly every night,” said Patricia Tharp, whom her husband simply called “Tricia.” The two began dating in August 1954, became engaged in January 1955 and wed on April 3, 1955.

“We were married 52 years, four months and about six days,” she said in a sweet, elegant Southern drawl. “He died on the ninth.”

“But the thing is,” she recalled Tuesday, “he had a special relationship with God. And when he was diagnosed (on July 18) ... he told me, ‘If this is God’s plan for my life, then I don’t worry about it.’ I’m not worried about him.”

The Tharps’ final act of service to Lee County, “The Caboose Came Last,” won’t be released until November, said Lesley Barbosa of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce.

Although Page Tharpe never knew, Barbosa said the book has been dedicated to the Tharps, a couple who, as the inscription reads, “contributed unselfishly to the religious, cultural and governmental affairs of Lee County.”

“There would not be a book if not for them,” said Becky Belcher, a member of the Lee County Book Committee who worked with the couple on “Caboose,” as well as the first book they spearheaded, “A Train Runs Through It.”

Belcher, who knew Page Tharp for just four years, had a hint of sadness in her voice as she spoke of him. And yet, as with all those who shared his stories, there was also a sense of gratitude at having known him.

“If I could be half the person that he was,” she said, “I’d be doing well.”

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