We hear Gus Thomasson’s name almost every day on the news in connection with the road that is named after him. However, Gus Thomasson and his family gave so much to North Texas and our country. Not only is he a historic figure, but a famous past resident of Perry Heights.
Gustavus “Gus” Winzo Thomasson was born in 1870 in Franklin County, Texas. His first job was working at the dry goods store he and his father opened in Van Alstyne. Gus soon met and married his wife, Annie Laurie McKinley (whose father was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence). They moved to Dallas in 1909 and he eventually became the VP and general manager of the Perkins Dry Goods Company from 1919 to 1932. Gus then went into public service. He served as the chief of the Work Progress Administration (as a part of the New Deal Infrastructure project) for North Texas from 1935 to 1942. As the chief, he directed such projects as the Dal-Hi (P.C. Cobb ) stadium, Rockwall County Courthouse, Highland Park water system, Harry Hines Boulevard, numerous roadside parks, recreational activities, writers, and musical programs. He oversaw 32 WPA offices for 40 counties in North Texas. Gus was always very proud that no hint of scandal or accusation of misuse of public funds touched the WPA projects he directed, which had a total budget of $100 million (roughly $1.6 billion in 2021 dollars). For this reason, he could be considered one of the most honest public servants in Dallas history.
In the 1930s, Gus moved into the home on the corner of Rawlins and Prescott with his wife, Annie, and their young son, Gus W. Thomasson, Jr. Their son went to Tulane University and became a physician. Gus Jr. then met and married Lillian Ann Wingo of Nashville. They had an intimate wedding in the beautiful garden of his parents’ home on Rawlins. The wedding was officiated by a neighbor, Bishop John M. Moore. After their honeymoon cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, they returned to Dallas to be honored at a large party given by Mr. and Mrs. E. Gordon Perry at their home at 4327 Rawlins. After living in Nashville for a short time, the couple returned to Dallas, where Gus Jr. briefly had a medical practice at the corner of Oak Lawn Ave. and Routh St.
At the onset of World War II, Gus Jr. joined the Air Force as a flight physician and was stationed at the Childress Air Training School. It was during a training flight in 1943 that he was killed in a crash. He left his wife, Lillian, to raise their two children. It was in the same garden at the Rawlins home where they were married that the Thomassons held his memorial.
Annie Thomasson died a few years later in 1947. Gus Thomasson married Vera English Clark, a widowed college English teacher, in 1949. After Gus’ death at the age of 83 in 1954, Vera continued living in the Rawlins home and was involved in civic and club work, including the Daughters of the American Revolution. She married her third husband, Cyrus Langrone, and the two lived in their home on Rawlins until her passing at the age of 72 in 1964.