Don Thomas:  

First of all, I married Wilda Whipkey and we had 4 children. 1 daughter Karen and 3 boys Steve, David, Russell. we have been married 52 1/2 years. After high school I worked in the oil field's for 10 years. On the 4th attempt to change my profession I finally got out of the oil business and moved to Shawnee, OK where I went to work for Sylvania in the tool and die division. I worked for Sylvania until they closed the plant in Shawnee. They wanted me to move to Bangor Maine to work for them but I didn't want to move to the cold country! At that point I started teaching banjo,guitar & fiddle ending up with 60 individual lessons per week. Then I opened a retail music store and continued with the music lessons and added stringed instrument repair. In 1973 I started building the Thomas Custom 5 String Banjos along with the music business and music lessons. I have shipped Thomas Banjos all over the Uni...Expand for more