Mary Martha Thompson

Mary Martha Thompson, known to most of her family as “Martha”, was born October 9, 1918 in Braidwood, Illinois. She was the 6th child of Herbert Dabney and Ida (née Johnson) Pinnick. At age 106, she answered the call of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and passed away peacefully at the Lemont Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, on Tuesday, November 19, 2024. 

Martha graduated in 1937 then moved several miles to Wilmington for a brief time doing domestic work. She left there for her sister’s Mayme’s home in Lockport where she quickly caught the eye of Frank McNear, a co-worker of her brother-in-law Nelson. The courtship was brief, but the marriage lasted 31 years. After his passing, God blessed her with a second husband, Reverend Odell Thompson and another long marriage of 20 years.  

Martha grew up in the First Baptist Church in Braidwood and from there never wavered in her faith as she established church homes at Shiloh Baptist Church in Lockport, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church of Joliet, St. John Baptist Church of Manningdale/Joliet, and Mt. Ebal M.B. Church of Lockport. She has served as First Lady at St. John Baptist Church of Joliet, usher, choir member, youth choir assistant, Deaconess, and church Mothers' Board member. She absolutely loved attending long distance dial-in Sunday School led by Deacon Alvin Carroll and led off the gathering singing “Blessed Assurance.” 

 Martha, a devoted wife and mother, also had fond memories of jobs sewing men’s suit jackets for the clothier Hart, Schaffner and Marx, and as an ammunition inspector at the Joliet Arsenal.  

 Martha loved eating and one of her earliest memories was of her mother making a green tomato pie. She and her siblings grew up on Great Northern beans and she was quoted as saying, “You’re not a Pinnick, if you don’t like beans!” Beans or chicken with dumplings were favorites from her youth, and she took a liking to okra when she married husband Frank. It was a southern dish she wasn’t familiar with and learned to make it with the help of her sister-in-law. Cheesecake and butter pecan ice cream were two of her go-to desserts in her later years.

Martha was preceded in death by parents, Herbert and Ida Pinnick, son Richard Thompson, brothers, William, Herbert, Charles, John, Richard and Theodore, sisters, Mayme McCain and Selena Turner, and Ida Poston. Left to cherish her memory daughter, Tracy (Steven) Thompson Lyles, (Los Angeles, CA) grandchildren, Derrick (Springfield, IL); Marques (Houston, TX) Jennifer (Grayson, GA), Katrice (Chicago, IL), Mercedes, Jordan and Kourtney (Los Angeles, CA); great grandchildren, Dayshaun “DJ”, Kaniyah, Derrick Jr. , Jaila, Briella, Messiah, Janylah, Nyior, (Springfield, IL) Leah, Jayden, Carmelo (Houston, TX), Aidan, Ashton (Grayson, GA) and Nara (Los Angeles, CA; sisters-in-law, Eva Pinnick and Annie Pinnick. Numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, the Mt. Ebal family and many friends.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mary Martha Thompson, please visit our floral store.