Ken Thayer dies at 58

Former owner of Yocum’s Photography, Ken Thayer, 58, passed away this morning while in the hospital in Little Rock, Ark.

Thayer owned and operated Yocum’s Photography, first

on Dupont Drive in the Cove and then for many years in it’s location

next to Rose Thayer Academy of Dance on 16th Street. 

For the past nine years Ken has been employed as a Crime Scene Investigator for the Orange Police Department. Police Chief Sam Kittrell said in a release, “Ken was a valuable member

of the department and he provided a level of expertise and

professionalism that will be impossible to replace.”

Thayer was born on Oct. 31, 1952 as Kenneth Charles Thayer and graduated from Lutcher Stark High School in Orange in 1970. He married Rose Yocum Thayer, a 1972 graduate of West Orange High School, on June 23, 1973.

In addition to Rose he is survived by his parents, Newt and Jean Thayer of Beaumont. He is also survived by his brothers, Frank and David, both of Houston; his daughters, Christi Kovatch and husband, Chris of Orange, Jennifer Knight and husband, Sam or Orlando, Fla., and daughter, Lori Knight of New York City, N.Y. He has six grandchildren.

He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Orange.

Also a close personal friend of Thayer, Kittrell said, “ I grieve for our professional loss, for the loss of a dear friend, and I grieve over the loss of a man for whom the center of his universe was his family. It will only be the families strong faith in God that will fill the black hole at the center off that universe.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.