Valerie Thomas Price

Valerie Thomas Price, of Leesville, SC, passed away on September 6, 2025 after a seven-month
battle with illness. Born on January 6, 1961, Valerie arrived on the scene when her parents were
missionaries in Mandeville, Jamaica. The third child of the four children of Eulice Douglas
Thomas, and Juanita Cochran Thomas, Valerie was never a typical middle child. She was center
stage from the beginning. With her curly blonde hair, blue eyes and boundless energy, Valerie
was born determined to do everything that her older brother and sister did. The Jamaica Bible
College campus was an ideal place to roam, and roam she did!
Her parents, along with several other families, taught at the college that served students from
around the West Indies. One of the earliest recollections of Valerie was of someone bringing
her home during the campus-wide rest hour after lunch. She, at four years old, had sneaked
out of the house and gone visiting in the student dorms! At five years old, in the big city of St.
Louis where the family lived that year, Valerie went home from school with a friend. This was
not a planned visit between the parents. Her mom had no idea where she was, and Valerie,
who did not even know her address, just told the other mother to take her back to the school
and she could find her way home from there!
Valerie never rested if she could help it. Her mother used to find her fast asleep on the floor of
whatever room she happened to be in when she ran out of energy, which was not often. Also,
at four years old, she learned to ride a bicycle. And not a child’s bicycle, but an adult-sized
bicycle. The picture of her standing on the pedals to rest between pumping up and down
because she was too short to sit on the seat, is unforgettable. Getting started from a stump or
the front porch step was tricky, as was stopping, but she was not hindered by trivialities once
she decided to do something. She had an impish smile and loved to tease people. “She is a
mess”, or “a live wire”, were descriptors that her parents heard a lot. There were a lot of smiles
when she showed up, but a lot of head shaking as well.
After ten years in Jamaica, her dad pastored churches in South Carolina and North Carolina until
his retirement. Never intimidated by a move to a new place, Valerie was a chameleon, running
out immediately to play with the neighborhood children and adopting their accent by
dinnertime. Practical jokes were a delight to her and one had better be on their guard at all
times. A family favorite was of the joke she played on the entire student body and faculty of the
boarding school she attended for high school. A Christian boarding school with lots of rules,
weekly chapels were mandatory. Naturally, there was singing and sometimes a solo by some of
the more musically gifted students. When Valerie offered to sing a solo, there were surprised
but pleased looks. When she left the stage after her song, everyone was murmuring about what
a surprise talent she was, how beautifully she had sung, and how blessed they all were by her
song. As she made her way to her seat, the star musical talent of the school, popped up from
her place behind the podium where she had been hiding. Valerie had lip-synced the whole
thing!

After receiving a degree in industrial drafting from Midlands Technical College, Valerie settled in
Leesville, SC. Her parents moved once more, but she refused to go. She was not moving again,
she said. This was a good thing, because through a friend at her work, she was introduced to
Dean Price, who became the love of her life. They just celebrated their 40 th anniversary in May.
Valerie left the industrial drafting field and did a variety of other jobs, including driving a special
needs school bus for several years. Most recently, she was employed by the Federal Civil
Service at Fort Jackson, SC. She loved driving the troops around to their various training
activities, and would often surprise them by turning on the radio or even the air conditioning, if
the drill sergeant was not on the bus. Many of them thanked her for being a bright spot in their
twelve weeks of basic training.
While the first descriptor of Valerie was always, “a mess’, there were many other descriptors of
who she was at her core. Her nieces and nephews all agree that she was the most generous
person they had ever known. She helped all of them in any way she could, pulling loose teeth,
teaching them to ride a bicycle or giving advice. She had an intuitive understanding of which
birthday gift would most delight them, always including a card stuffed with one-dollar bills, one
for each year of life.
Outside of her family, her friends knew her to be caring and loyal, someone who would do
anything for you. If you had a problem or a need, she was the first person many would call. She
and Dean would drop everything to help anyone who needed a hand. She was so innovative
and smart and could fix anything that needed repair. From appliances to cars, she could figure
out how repair or install anything long before there were step by step YouTube videos. She
often created her own solutions that worked better.
Valerie was also extremely competitive. She played various sports in high school, winning the
MVP award for basketball. In recent years, she and Dean were a part of the South Carolina
State Barbeque Association and traveled to competitions around the state. Two years in a row,
they won the state championship, a huge accomplishment! She was an avid Clemson fan, and
enjoyed spending time at the beach, where she planned to retire.
Upon reflecting on her too-short life that did not include retiring to the beach or watching her
grandson grow up, the words of Psalm 139:16 come to mind,
 

“all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.”

Valerie lived ALL of the days that the Lord planned for her. She lived them to the full, and she is
now safely home in heaven.
Valerie is survived by her husband Dean, her beloved children, Thomas Price of Aiken, SC, one
grandson, Noah Price, daughter Kayce Price of Oak Island, NC, and her sister, Susan Smith, of
Oak Island NC. She is predeceased by her parents, her oldest brother, Doug Thomas, and
younger brother, Nathan Thomas. Nieces and nephews are Abbie Ensor, Graham Thomas, Nick
Smith, Charlotte Pering, and Jackson Smith.

The family will receive friends from 6-8 pm on Thursday, September 11 th at Barr-Price Funeral
Home in Leesville, SC. A graveside service will be held at the National Cemetery at Fort Jackson
in Columbia, SC on Friday, September 12, at 12:00pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any gift you wish to make in Valerie’s memory, be
given to Paths of Hope Ministries, a non-profit ministry in Peru that helps youth who are aging
out of orphanages. www.pohperu.org

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