GREENWOOD, INDIANA
Thomas Smith Foster of Greenwood, Indiana passed away Sunday, September 8. He was born August 22, 1924 in Legate, TN to the late Raymond R. and Mary Ethel Foster. The family moved to LaFayette, KY where Tom lived until entering the army during WW II.
He graduated from LaFayette High School as valedictorian of his class. After high school he did farm work for a while, then began working with construction companies as Ft. Campbell was being built. Tom was drafted into the army in 1945 and served until 1946. He was sent to Ft Harrison while awaiting discharge and during that time met the love of his life, Iva. They married in 1947 and remained happily together until Iva passed in 2008. Shortly after marriage they moved to Indianapolis where Tom worked for Decca Records before settling in at Mayflower Transit Co., from which he retired after more than 30 years of service. They had one son, Ronald.
From an early age, Tom enjoyed music and told stories of singing at church at the age of 5. He learned to play guitar, and while in high school formed a band with three friends, The Kentucky Mockingbirds. They performed wherever they could and had regular spots on both Hopkinsville, KY and Evansville, IN radio stations. Throughout his life he played guitar for relaxation as well as with various vocal groups conducted by a close friend and in his church band. Later in life he discovered The Chatterbox Jazz Club and thoroughly enjoyed going there any time he could; other than being with family and friends, it became his favorite hangout, and his photo even hangs behind the bar.
Tom always made family his number one priority, and although his immediate family was small, he embraced family members’ friends as if they were his own. He delighted in every aspect of being a grandparent. He was quite the jokester, and Tom’s granddaughters learned at a young age that if they wanted a straight answer, best to go ask Grandma.
For more than 16 years, Tom loved tutoring elementary school children at Westwood Elementary in Greenwood (in partnership with Oasis), and was featured for this reason by WTHR TV in early 2020: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/95-greenwood-army-veteran-still-serves-elementary-school-reading-tutor/531-cbf73663-896f-4457-b1f8-99ef38a4d21c.
In addition to his parents, Tom was preceded in death by brothers Robert and Milford, a sister Mary and his wife Iva. He is survived by his son Ron and two granddaughters: Aubrey Haury (Jonas) and Kelsey Foster (Dustin Goodpaster).
A memorial service will be held September 20 at 11:00 AM, with visitation beginning at 10:00 AM at Indiana Funeral Care in Greenwood. For anyone wishing to make a donation in Tom’s memory, please consider the Westwood Elementary Child-In-Need-Fund, Westwood Elementary School, 899 Honey Creek Rd., Greenwood, IN 46143 or The Indiana Music History Project (https://www.indianafound.org). Make checks payable to: Indiana Entertainment Foundation, Mail to: Flanner and Buchanan, Lower Level, 1305 Broad Ripple Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46220.
