Tomi Jean Anderson Lenamon, a member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth for 58 years, died Jan 7. She was 85. She was born April 2, 1934, on a farm in Limestone County to Cy and Lizzy Anderson. She graduated from Groesbeck High School, where she was voted class favorite. Upon graduation, she worked as the secretary to the president of the Farmers State Bank. On Aug. 21, 1951, she married her high school sweetheart, Joe T. Lenamon, a 1951 graduate of Texas A&M University. After he completed his service in the U.S. Air Force, the couple moved to Fort Worth. In addition to caring for four children and maintaining a household, she sewed for the public, bought and resold furniture, and worked as a Tupperware dealer. Later, she worked in the offices of several companies, including Christian Education for the Blind and Stewart Title Company. In 1979, she went to work for Search Ministries and retired from there in 1991. At Travis Avenue Baptist Church, she was involved in Woman’s Missionary Union and a variety of mission projects and trips. She and her husband helped initiate a ministry for young married seminary students. Anytime she was told, “You can’t do that,” she replied, “Just watch me.” She once called the White House to complain about an advertising campaign that put cigarettes in mailboxes. She enjoyed tracing her family genealogy, took many family pictures and left her family a treasured heritage in memory books. For many years, she dealt with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue before it was an accepted diagnosis. Her illness kept her mostly homebound in her later years. She was preceded in death by three brothers, two sisters, and a son, Joel Lenamon. She is survived by her husband of 68 years, Joe T. Lenamon, one of the founders of Texas Baptist Men; daughter Roseanne McAdams and son-in-law John; son Mickey Lenamon, executive director of TBM, and his wife Sallie; son Tony Lenamon; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren, plus two who are expected to arrive in March.
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