August 26, 1930 ~ July 13, 2025 (age 94)
Thomas (Tommy) Ellis, 94 of Lufkin, Texas, passed away Sunday, July 14, 2025, in Lufkin, Texas.
A celebration of life for Tommy will be held at First Baptist Church in Diboll, Texas on Sunday, July 20, 2025, at 2:00 PM.
Visitation for Tommy will be from 1:00-2:00 Sunday, July 20, 2025, at First Baptist Church in Diboll, Texas. Interment will follow at Sunset Cemetery in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Tommy loved working with his hands, especially any kind of woodwork. Wherever he lived, he would find ways to add-on or remodel their houses through the years. He also built boat docks, chicken coops, decks, picnic tables, swings, bookshelves, cabinets, desks – he was always making something in his spare time. He worked for Southwestern Bell until he retired in 1983 at the ripe ole age of 53. He started out working in the stockroom, later he became an installer, and worked his way up to being a supervisor. Even after he retired, he had his own contract telephone business. He called it, “Tell-Tom”. When he and Nell weren’t enjoying skiing, boating, fishing or traveling; he enjoyed playing the guitar and Nell playing the piano either in their Sunday School class or for small country churches. Tommy loved to go pickin’ at any bluegrass festival or jam session he could find. If he wasn’t playing his six-string guitar, he would lay his Dobro across his lap and echo background slides similar to a steel guitar. He always loved music, whether bluegrass or gospel, and if he wasn’t trying to play an instrument, he was filling the air with enthusiastic tenor notes. His love for music was only surpassed by his love for people. He never met a stranger and whether you were shopping at Home Depot or sitting in the doctor’s office, if you were anywhere near him, he was going to talk to you. And very soon after he started talking to you, he made sure he told you about Jesus.
Tommy is survived by his daughter, Tonna Ellis Davis and husband Richard Neil Davis; two grandsons, Aric D. Davis and Scott E. Davis; daughters-in-law, Angela Waits Davis and Jana Villarreal Davis; six great-grandchildren, Jaycee Davis, Jaxon Davis, Brooks Davis, Brynn Davis, Sage Davis, and Avelyn Davis.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Sidney and Naomi Ellis; brother, Wallace Daniel Ellis; and his beloved wife of 74 years, Anita LaNell Ellis.
Serving as pallbearers are Aric Davis, Scott Davis, Jaxon Davis, Sage Davis, Brooks Davis, and Jeff Lazarine.
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