A native of
Jackson,
Tennessee, Thomerson spent portions of her childhood in
Mississippi,
California, and
Texas. She attended the
University of Texas, receiving a bachelor's degree in music in 1956 and a master's degree in 1958; she also studied at
Syracuse University, with
Flor Peeters at the
Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, and with
Jean Langlais in
Paris. She worked as the music director of University United Methodist Church in
St. Louis, and taught organ at the Saint Louis Conservatory and at
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; She was a Fellow of the
American Guild of Organists. While at the University of Texas, Kathleen Armstrong met Jamie Edward Thomerson, marrying him on June 1, 1957. He went on to a career as an ichthyologist and professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The couple had three children, two sons and a daughter, and remained together until his death from
prostate cancer on January 4, 2015. Thomerson died on April 7, 2025, at the age of 91. ==References==