River Road crash victim loved his kids, his dog and driving a truck

On the day he died on River Road, Jerry Thompson was feeling his way through something unusual: a vacation.

“The guy always worked,” said one of the Sonoma County native’s many siblings, Kathy Ribera of Kelseyville. “He loved his kids, his dog and driving a truck.”

Thompson, a cheerful man described by sister Violet Doble of Oakmont as “a big, woolly bear,” was in his own compact pickup with his canine sidekick, a Jack Russell Terrier named Cindy, when it collided head-on with a Lexus on March 9. Authorities say it appears the Lexus driver had accelerated, crossed the double yellow line and tried to pass several vehicles.

The first Thompson’s family knew of the fiery crash, which also killed the driver of the Lexus and Cindy the dog, was when a Lake County deputy sheriff knocked on sister Ribera’s door to make official notification that Monday night.

“It’s such a shame,” Ribera said. She recalled that just the weekend before her brother was killed they’d celebrated his 58th birthday with cake and ice cream at her place near Clear Lake.

The Windsor resident and a couple of motorcycle buddies had ridden there on their Harley-Davidsons. Two-wheeled road trips were among his favorite things in life.

“There was no better guy than Jerry,” Ribera said. “He was happy, always had a smile on his face.”

Jerry Ray Thompson was one of 11 children of the late Ray and Faye Thompson, who came to Sonoma County from Oklahoma in the 1950s. The family lived for a time in Sebastopol, then moved onto a chicken ranch off Todd Road, southwest of Santa Rosa, when Ray Thompson was hired to manage it.

Jerry Thompson helped tend the 84,000 chickens while he attended Piner High School. After graduation he worked a variety of jobs, finding that he most liked driving trucks.

For about the past 20 years, he was employed by Daniel O. Davis Inc., a Santa Rosa demolition contractor. He arranged to be off from work last week, his birthday week, and on the day he died he was headed to the home of one of his brothers, Tommy, in Santa Rosa.

Jerry Thompson’s daughter, Sarah Thompson of Santa Rosa, said he was an extraordinary father and was always there for her. An example:

Not long ago, she said, she was driving with her mother, Cheryl Wilder, Jerry Thompson’s former wife, and a faulty fuel gauge caused them to run out of gas on the busy Highway 101 overpass at Petaluma Boulevard North.

Sarah Thompson said no one stepped up to help them push the car. They were quite frantic, she said, when her father appeared in his big work truck.

“He could have been working anywhere in the county,” she said. But there he was. He pushed the car to a safe place.

Then, said his grateful and heartbroken daughter, “He gave me a kiss and said, ‘I gotta go, baby girl.’?”

Beyond his children, his dog, his work and his Harley, Thompson’s passions included fishing. Ribera said he favored Lake Ralphine at Santa Rosa’s Howarth Park and “any lake that had a ‘No Fishing’ sign.”

“He was such a great guy,” she said.

In addition to his daughter in Santa Rosa, two sisters in Kelseyville and Oakmont, and his brother in Santa Rosa, Thompson is survived by his son Joseph Thompson of Santa Rosa and siblings Ella Hawkes of Sebastopol, Vern Thompson of Kelseyville, Johnny Thompson of Clearlake, Mae Witaker of Vacaville and Ken Thompson of Ivanhoe. Two brothers preceded him in death.

Services are at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pleasant Hills Memorial Park in Sebastopol.

His family has created an appeal at gofundme.com for donations to help with the costs of his final arrangements.