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Thomas Wendel Doades
24 November 1932 — 15 September 1999

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### School years

Thomas Wendel Doades was born in Indiana on November 24, 1932, to Floyd Vincent Doades and Helen E. Szabo. He attended Central High School in South Bend, Indiana.[^T1][^T2]

At Central, Thomas took part in the school productions Let’s Talk Turkey and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. He belonged to the Spanish club and the Barnstormers, the school’s drama club, and held a student office in his homeroom. He was also active in Hi-Y, a YMCA club for high-school boys that encouraged service and Christian character, serving as vice-president in 1949 and also as secretary. The club organized a football rally, an outing for younger pupils, and an Easter assembly, raising money for its activities by selling school-supporter pins.[^T2]

His artistic ability was already attracting notice. In his senior year in 1950, the school yearbook compared his promise to that of Al Capp, creator of the comic strip Li’l Abner.[^T2]

### Advertising and film

Thomas turned his interest in art into a career in advertising, where art directors guide the visual design of advertisements. After two years as an art director at the Sam Bloom agency, he joined the advertising agency Tracy-Locke in Dallas in 1961. That year he shared a home on Hackney Lane with his parents; Floyd worked as a supervisor, while Thomas was listed as a commercial artist.[^T3][^T4]

He remained an art director at Tracy-Locke until 1966, then spent a year in the same role with the advertising agency Reeves Knox in Minneapolis. In 1967 he returned to Dallas to join Keitz & Herndon, a film and animation production company, as a staff producer. The move took his career from advertising design into the production of moving images. By September 1968, he had become the company’s vice president responsible for creative work.[^T4]

One of his films was made for HemisFair, the world’s fair held in San Antonio, Texas, in 1968. It was shown at the Institute of Texan Cultures, the fair’s Texas pavilion, which introduced visitors to the peoples and traditions that shaped the state. The film won a gold medal at the eleventh Southwestern Advertising and Editorial Art exhibition in Dallas that year.[^T5]

### Family and later life

Thomas married Sandra Kay Hequet, later known as Sandra Walker, in Texas. Their daughter was Lynn Doades Bryant.[^T6]

In later life, Thomas lived in the Kerrville area of Texas. He died on September 15, 1999, aged sixty-six.[^T7]

[^T1]: Family testimony identifies Thomas’s parents. The [Numident-derived index](https://sortedbyname.com/letter_s/szabo/index_36.html) gives November 24, 1932 and the abbreviated birthplace “MISHAWAKA ST, Indiana.” The original application has not been inspected; Indiana is the supported geographic precision.
[^T2]: The Interlude, Central High School, South Bend: [1950, p. 14](https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll1/id/1434/) and [1949, p. 62](https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll1/id/2153/). The portrait and Hi-Y caption identify Thomas. The activities described are those of the club; the yearbook’s Al Capp comparison describes Thomas’s artistic promise. Context: Indiana University South Bend’s [James Lewis Casaday Theatre Collection](https://library.iusb.edu/search-find/archives/casaday/index.html) identifies Barnstormers as Central’s drama club. The [YMCA history](https://www.ymca.org/who-we-are/our-history/founding-years) explains Hi-Y’s high-school service and Christian-character aims. The [Smithsonian’s Al Capp collection description](https://americanhistory.si.edu/ne/collections/object/nmah_1400097) identifies him as the creator of Li’l Abner. “School-supporter pins” explains the yearbook’s booster pins.
[^T3]: [Dallas city directory, 1961, p. 434](https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth806907/m1/770/), original image: Floyd V. Doades, with Helen E., and Thos W. Doades, commercial artist, share the Hackney Lane address. Family testimony independently establishes parentage.
[^T4]: [Television Age, September 23, 1968, p. 40](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-TV-Radio-Age/60s/68/Television-Radio-Age-1968-09-23.pdf), and [Broadcasting, September 2, 1968, p. 58](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1968/1968-09-02-BC.pdf). The distinctive name, Dallas location, commercial-art profession and compatible chronology make the executive’s identification as Lynn’s father probable. A family-linked employment record would strengthen that identification. Sam Bloom’s approximately 1959–1961 and Reeves Knox’s approximately 1966–1967 intervals are inferred from the stated durations. The Dallas–Minneapolis–Dallas sequence describes employment locations; exact moving dates are unknown. Context: [Lawrence Herndon’s obituary](https://obits.dallasnews.com/us/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/name/lawrence-herndon-obituary?id=19646556), Dallas Morning News, January 29, 2014, identifies Keitz & Herndon as a motion-picture and animation company. The explanation of art direction describes the occupation generally, not a recovered list of Thomas’s assignments.
[^T5]: [Television Age, June 17, 1968, p. 37, “Texas Gold”](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-TV-Radio-Age/60s/68/Television-Radio-Age-1968-06-17.pdf), names Tom Doades of Keitz & Herndon. The identity assessment in note T4 also applies here. The film’s title and exact award date are unknown. Its exhibition in San Antonio does not establish Thomas’s attendance. Context and name correction: [UT San Antonio’s HemisFair history](https://www.utsa.edu/50/our-history/utsa-50/hemisfair.html) identifies the Institute of Texan Cultures as the Texas State Exhibits Pavilion; the [institute’s history](https://texancultures.utsa.edu/history) explains its cultural purpose. “Texan,” rather than “Texas,” is the institution’s name.
[^T6]: Jason Durant Walker’s family testimony identifies Thomas and Sandra as Lynn’s parents. The existing family biography places their marriage in Texas. Its date and locality are unknown; the order of these paragraphs does not place it after 1968.
[^T7]: The death date agrees across the parental index, the [FamilySearch profile](https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKZR-NX5/thomas-wendel-doades-1932-1999), and [Doades v. Syed](https://openjurist.org/94/sw3d/664/doades-v-syed). The [death-index compilation](https://www.locateancestors.com/doades/) supports the Kerrville-area residence; it does not establish a death site. Age is calculated from the birth and death dates.

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