Leota Mae West Thornton, 89, of Austin, Texas completed her life's work on January 31, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Leota's father Temple Houston West and mother Lena Mae Walton West, instilled in her that "family always came first".  Leota raised her family well and now her job is done. She was the first of three daughters and was born in San Saba County Texas on December 17, 1933.  Leota grew up with her younger sisters Luene and the baby of the family Lee Ellen. She would often refer to Lee Ellen as her baby, loading her up in their wagon and going on adventures. She would sing her songs, play games with her and share secrets only sisters could know.  She loved to ride her bike to the local theatre and was enthralled by the glorious productions born of the Golden-Age of movie musicals. Leota would float home having taken each musical arrangement to heart and sit at her family's piano and play them all by ear. Having witnessed her gift, her mother Lena arranged for private piano lessons. Thriving on the formal education, Leota would perform many piano recitals throughout her growing up, adorned in stylish recital dresses made by her mother's own hand. Her father Temple was always her rock and she idolized him, mimicking his strength and dedication to family. She often assisted her mother who had her own flower shop, by helping to design flower arrangements and delivering bouquets to their many customers on her bike with the special basket her father had designed to carry them.

On August 3, 1951 Leota married her high school sweetheart David 'Richard' Thornton and they were blessed with three sons, Walter Raigen, James Richard, John Leeland, and one daughter, Jauana Kay. The young couple honeymooned in a small house on her father's ranch and a year later, on their 1 ^st wedding anniversary, Raigen was born. All too soon they were off to Lubbock, Texas where Richard would attend Texas Tech University. As part of his undergraduate program, Richard was to participate in a fellowship with the Colorado State Forestry Conservancy. As it happened, Leota gave birth to James and as the story would have it, mother, 5 yearold and infant did not fare well in Denver. The family was promptly relocated to one of the field houses up in the mountains, so with a toddler, a fussy infant and only a record player for company, Richard was hard pressed to find Leota a "piano". Upon returning to Texas, Leota's family settled into Brian College Station where Richard would do graduate work at Texas A&M University.  Over the next several years they had son John Leeland and daughter Jauana Kay. Richard accepted a position with The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the family found their home in Austin.  Situated on the outskirts of Travis County in the rural area of Lake Travis, Leota found her family had the space they needed to grow and prosper.  There she would spend the next 57 years of her life raising her family, celebrating 70 years of marriage to her high school sweetheart and surviving as the last remaining matriarch of the West/Thornton Clan.   Leota and Richard's life has been greatly blessed  by their daughters Patricia 'Stormy' Thornton, Jodie Thornton, Kathy Kaufman, and by grandchildren, Micah David and his wife Margie, Sarah Elizabeth, Wesley Dean, Spring Gale, Elizabeth Ellen, Alice May and her husband Andy, Janie Rose and her husband Robert, Nichole Elizabeth and her wife Shea, Jeremy Avril and his wife Shelly, Maverick Leeland and his wife Katie, and by great grandchildren, Olivia Danielle, Lilly Marie, Micah David Jr., Emilia May, Wyatt Quigley, Emmett Quigley, Daniel James, Emma Lynn, Anna Jean, and Autumn Lynn. Leota was preceded in death by her husband, parents, sisters, brothers in law Sebern Edward, Johnnie "Cotton" and James N Thornton, sons James Richard Thornton and Walter Raigen Thornton, grandson Wesley Dean Thornton, sisters in law Jeannean Thornton, Sarah Kate Wilder Thornton and Ollene Thornton, daughter Tracey Templeman Thornton, and beloved parents Sebern J Thornton and Alice L Jackson.

In lieu of flowers, make donations to your favorite charity or to High Valley Cemetery in care of Joycelyn McCory, PO Box 507, San Saba Texas, 76871.