Jefferson Thomas, one of Little Rock Nine, dies at 67

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Jefferson Thomas, who as a teenager was among nine black students to integrate a Little Rock high school in the nation's first major battle over school segregation, has died.

He was 67.

Thomas died Sunday in Ohio of pancreatic cancer, according to a Monday statement from Carlotta Walls LaNier, who also enrolled at Central High School in 1957 and is president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation.

President Bill Clinton issued a statement Monday, calling Thomas "a true hero, a fine public servant, and profoundly good man."

In 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama sent Thomas and other members of the Little Rock Nine special invitations to his inauguration as the nation's first black president. During his campaign, he had said the Little Rock Nine's courage in desegregating Central High helped make the opportunities in his life possible.

Thomas played a number of sports and was on the track team at Dunbar Junior High, but others had little to do with him once he entered Central, the state's largest high school.

"I had played with some of the white kids from the neighborhood," Thomas said. "I went up to Central High School after school and we played basketball and touch football together. I knew some of the kids.

"Eventually, I ran into them . . . and they were not at all happy to see me," Thomas added. "One of them said, 'Well, I don't mind playing basketball or football with you or anything. You guys are good at sports. Everybody knows that, but you're just not smart enough to sit next to me in the classroom."'

Born in 1942, Thomas was the youngest of seven children. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Los Angeles State College and worked as an accounting clerk with the Department of Defense, retiring in 2004.