Donald Raymond Thomas' Obituary
Donald Raymond Thomas, known to most as Peanut, passed away on Wednesday, October 25th, at the age of 67.Peanut is survived by his children, Lisa Thomas, San Mateo, and Brett Thomas, Roseville, and his two granddaughters, Kiersten and Alexis. He is also survived by his siblings – brothers Ronnie, Jerry, Mark and Peter and sisters Patty Schmitz, Muffy (Therese) Peterson and Susie Ogiela. Along with his parents and grandparents, he will join his brothers Mike and Johnny and sister Lori in the greater afterlife.Ward and Frances Thomas raised Peanut and his 10 siblings in Belmont where they went to grade school at Immaculate Heart of Mary. He graduated from Carlmont High School, Belmont, in 1968. He was nicknamed Peanut when he was born by his father because he was so small and shaped like, well, a peanut. The nickname stuck and many people who knew him didn’t know his real name.Peanut lived on the peninsula all of his 67 years, worked most of his adult life as a carpenter, and later ran his own construction business, following in the footsteps of his father. He passed on his innate sense of building to both his kids who are also in the construction industry. After he closed his construction business, he kept busy bartending at Bucky’s Cocktail Lounge, cracking jokes and pouring drinks. He was a golfer, a great cribbage player and loved playing the ponies at Bay Meadows.Peanut was the type of person to give a stranger the shirt off his back and the last dollar in his pocket. Whether people knew him for a day or a decade or his whole life, they knew him as giving, friendly, funny, genuinely helpful and bigger than life.He will truly be missed by his kids, family and friends, and will be remembered so fondly by so many.A private service will be held for family.Peanut was very concerned about the fires in the North Bay. Donations can be made to the North Bay Fire Relief Fund at Redwood Credit Union, www.redwoodcu.org/northbayfirerelief.
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