{"id":9581,"date":"2010-03-08T03:58:05","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T08:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=9581"},"modified":"2010-03-08T05:26:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T10:26:23","slug":"avril-thompson-was-a-champion-for-the-deaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/03\/08\/avril-thompson-was-a-champion-for-the-deaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Avril Thompson was a champion for the deaf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obituary<\/p>\n

Avril Thompson was a champion for the deaf<\/strong><\/p>\n

By CAROL CHRISTIAN
\nHOUSTON CHRONICLE
\nFeb. 27, 2010<\/p>\n

Allen Schneider remembers going with his mother as a 3-year-old to Tony
\nVallone’s original restaurant on Sage, where she was a singer in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

But he does not remember the music. He has been deaf since birth.<\/p>\n

Schneider’s mother, Avril D. Thompson, who left her singing career to become
\na passionate advocate for the hearing-impaired, died Feb. 10 at Memorial
\nHermann Southwest Hospital after suffering a fall at her Houston home. She
\nwas 79.<\/p>\n

Schneider, of Friendswood, said his mother’s efforts on his behalf helped
\nhim learn to communicate with American Sign Language and speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom sought what was best for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not for that, she would
\nhave been famous in the entertainment business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides working for better education and job opportunities for the deaf,
\nThompson later took up other causes, including helping women in prison, said
\nher pastor, the Rev. Mark Cooper of Christ Church Presbyterian in Bellaire.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a sense of really standing up for folks who kind of got the short
\nend of the stick in a whole variety of ways,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

Born Feb. 5, 1931, in Atlanta, Thompson grew up in Florida after being
\nadopted by a great-aunt and great-uncle, Elsie and Harold Parsons.<\/p>\n

She sang on the radio as a child and performed as a teenager. After leaving
\nFlorida, she toured as a singer on the East Coast and Canada.<\/p>\n

Thompson adopted the stage name Avril Ames at the suggestion of the Ames
\nBrothers, said her first husband, Aaron Schneider.<\/p>\n

At the time, she was singing with a group, The Bachelors, that opened for
\nthe Ames quartet, he said.<\/p>\n

Thompson came to Houston with The Bachelors in 1961, when the group decided
\nto stay here, he said.<\/p>\n

She performed as Avril Ames at Houston clubs, including Tony’s restaurant on
\nSage.<\/p>\n

She and Aaron Schneider married in 1962, and Allen was born in 1964.<\/p>\n

Although it took doctors months to confirm the baby was deaf, his parents
\nquickly realized he could not hear, Aaron Schneider said.<\/p>\n

The couple divorced in 1967 but remained friends, he said. In 1968, she
\nmarried Bert Thompson, who died in 2008.<\/p>\n

When Allen Schneider was 5, Thompson left her career to devote herself to
\nher son, Aaron Schneider said. She also became a fighter for the entire deaf
\ncommunity, friends said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a force to be reckoned with,\u201d said Claire Bugen, superintendent of
\nthe Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. \u201cShe learned everything she could
\nabout deafness and educational options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bugen recalled meeting Thompson in 1977, when Allen Schneider entered the
\nschool as a seventh-grader.<\/p>\n

At the time, Bugen said, educators favored keeping students with
\ndisabilities in their home districts, in the \u201cleast restrictive
\nenvironment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson met resistance when she wanted Houston education officials to send
\nher son to the state school.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was passionate that the least restrictive environment has to be defined
\nfor each student,\u201d Bugen said.<\/p>\n

Allen Schneider, who works with sorting equipment at the downtown Houston
\npost office, said that when he and his mother visited the state school, they
\nknew it was the best fit for him.<\/p>\n

Thompson’s work to get her son into the Austin school helped result in
\nlegislation giving the parents of deaf children more school options, Bugen
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Arthur Craig, pastor at Woodhaven Baptist Deaf Church in Houston,
\nsaid Thompson and her late husband started a support group for hearing
\nparents of deaf children in the church.<\/p>\n

A memorial service was held Wednesday.<\/p>\n

carol.christian@chron.com<\/p>\n

Source:
\n http:\/\/www.chron.com\/disp\/story.mpl\/metropolitan\/6889528.html <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obituary Avril Thompson was a champion for the deaf By CAROL CHRISTIAN HOUSTON CHRONICLE Feb. 27, 2010 Allen Schneider remembers going with his mother as a 3-year-old to Tony Vallone’s original restaurant on Sage, where she was a singer in…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[3618,3615,3617,20,3614,3613,3616,17,1147],"class_list":["post-9581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-aaron-schneider","tag-avril-thompson","tag-christ-church-presbyterian","tag-houston","tag-memorial-service","tag-rev-arthur-craig","tag-rev-mark-cooper","tag-texas","tag-woodhaven-baptist-deaf-church"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-2ux","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42982,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2022\/05\/04\/obituary-scott-darby-berry-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9581,"position":0},"title":"UPDATED: Scott Darby Berry","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"May 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott Darby Berry November 6, 1956 ~ February 24, 2022 (age 65) Scott Darby Berry entered the golden gate to HEAVEN and meet JESUS on February 24, 2022 at the age of 65 from MDAnderson Cancer Hospital in Houston,Texas. 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