Mary Blanchard

Funeral services for Mary F. Blanchard, 88, will be conducted Saturday morning at 10 o'clock in the First Baptist Church in Mansfield with the Rev. Thumper Miller, pastor, officiating. Interment will follow in the old Mansfield cemetery under the direction of Rose-Neath. Visitation will be held Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Rose-Neath Chapel. A native of Clarks in Caldwell Parish, she was graduated from Clarks High School and served the school band as drum majorette and cheerleader. She entered nursing school at the once North Louisiana Sanitarium in Shreveport as a cadet nurse and was educated in OB-GYN at "Big" Charity in New Orleans. She attended Vanderbilt University for medical study. Mrs. Blanchard has served as a registered nurse in many capacities in Winnsboro, Oak Grove (West Carroll Parish), Bastrop where she was operating supervisor at Morehouse General and Mansfield as a surgery nurse, office nurse and school nurse. She was a member of the DeSoto and Red River Quilters and member of Mansfield First Baptist Church. She was married to John Blanchard in a Monroe ceremony on August 28, 1948 and to them four children were born and survive: Jeb and wife, Rebecca, of Collierville, TN; J. Gregg and wife, Irene, of Rockville Centre, NY; Mary Jane Juneau and husband, Ben, of Shreveport; Margie Greer O'Neal of Memphis, TN. They have 10 grandchildren and one great-grandson. They have lived in Mansfield since August 1966. Grandsons will serve as pallbearers and include Russ Penuell of Nashville, TN, John Blanchard III of Baton Rouge; Dr. Adam Blanchard of New Orleans; Jason Blanchard, Esq. of Commack, NY, and Mark Blanchard of Rockville Centre, NY, and Arthur "Trip" O'Neal of Memphis. TN. Great-Grandson Stedman Penuell resides in Joaquin