Thomas Lamar Ellison

Thomas Lamar Ellison was born on December 20, 1944 to Carrie and Lamar Ellison in August, Georgia. Known by the nickname "Cut," in his younger years, Tom was a smart, entreprenurial, and driven young man. He displayed sharp scholastic acumen at an early age as a student at Lucy Laney Elementary School in Augusta with math being his favorite subject. Tom grew up as the eldest of four with sisters, Mary and Betty, and brother, Irving, who remember him as a supportive brother and son, a clean dresser, someone who always had a job, and who very much enjoyed working on cars. In 1955, in search of better economic opportunities, Tom's mother, Carrie moved the family to Carver Ranches Florida. In south Florida, Tom attended Carver Ranches Elementary School, Lanier Junior High School and Northwestern High School. Fastidious, adventuresome, and with a bit of hubris as young man, Tom left Northwestern in the 10th grade, thinking there was little left for him to learn and money to be earned. In that vein, Tom began working as a cook at a cafeteria in Opa Locka and later completed his high education, earning his GED. A few months shy of his 21st birthday, Tom was drafted into the mili...[more]

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y during the long war in Vietnam. Tom reported for service was stationed in Germany almost two years before being honorably discharged in June of 1967. It was upon returning home that he met a young women, Helen Yearby, at 7 Sisters Barbeque pit, while she was home on break from college. Though Helen returned to school, they stayed in touch and cultivated their relationship through letters, mostly sent by him. Helen's love and influence directed Tom back towards education and he soon moved to the Midwest, where Helen was studying, and began working at a correctional facility in East St. Louis. Up until relocating to the Midwest, Tom's life had been punctuated by the movement and change that reflected the shifting social and political tides of the time. Born under conditions of legalized apartheid in the United States, and conscripted to serve in a country that had only recently accorded him civil rights, Tom's time in the Midwest represented laying down roots and what is made possible through faithful struggle and loving determination. Tom took advantage of newly created of federal opportunities for educational funding expand the field of criminal justice and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1973. He grew closer to Helen and in December of 1969, they were married and began a loving partnership that flourished until Helen's earthly transition in June of 2013. After moving back to South Florida, Tom continued his career in corrections at the Broward County Correctional Institute for nearly twenty years. He is remembered as a collegial and affable co-worker and straight-shooter who dealt with people fairly. He brought a strong sense of justice to a place where it is often absent and used the space he had as a worker to advocate for sentencing reform and voter refranchisement. Tom also enjoyed playing tennis, swimming, golf, and listening to Carlos Santana, Curtis Mayfield, and Grover Washington Jr. while cleaning on weekends, and inventing his own very specialized cleaning products. Tom and Helen worked together for 43 years as community builders, opening their homes and their hearts to many and materially supporting grassroots community development, access to higher education, and anti-poverty efforts within their spiritual and familial communities and extended networks. Tom and Helen also worked together as devoted, loving and supportive parents to Tamyra and Treva, who both remember their father as caring, steadfast, and offering unconditional love. A few years after relocating to south Florida, Tom and Helen became members Church of Christ of Apostolic Nondenominational, which became the epicenter of their spiritual and social life and a community in which Tom's dramatic talents, creativity, and generosity would flourish under the pastorship of Dr. Deryl G. Hunt. Tom is remembered in his spiritual community as a Bishop Ellison: a teacher, a talker, and a servant of God. Tom's gregariousness and intelligence, and his innate sense of curiosity were grounded through the deepening of this faith and growth in understanding of Jesus as the Christ, the eternal Spirit of God. Coming to know this shaped his desire to make his life a living testament of God's mercy and we remember and celebrate his life as an example of humility, faithfulness, caring, sharing and loving. After Helen's earthly transition, Tom was blessed to marry Linda in March of 2014. Together they enjoyed going to estate sales, time at the beach and hosting guests at the Unity House in Madison, Florida. Tom and his memory and legacy will be held, cherished, and celebrated by many including his wife Linda, his children, Tamyra Ellison-Ritchey and Treva Ellison, his loving grand-daughters, Jordan Ritchey and Mycah Ritchey, who know him as "Papa," his god-daughter, Franchesca Yearby, his sisters Mary Smith and Betty Meeks, and his brother Irving Ellison. Let us rejoice with the angels that Bishop Tom has overcome the world, the flesh, the devil, and death. Here lies another witness that corruptible has put on incorruptible, mortal has put on immortality, where death has no sting, and the grave no victory.