Richard E. Blankenship

NORTH CANAAN — Richard E. Blankenship, 84, passed away Jan. 17, 2012, at Geer Village, where he had resided for the past eight years.He was born in 1927 in McFall, Mo., where he lived until the summer of 1943, when the family moved west to Woodland, Wash. In Woodland he finished his junior and senior high school. He attended Longview Washington Business College, graduating with a major in accounting, afterward serving one year in the Army Signal Corps in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After that he worked two years in government service in Burma as an administrative assistant.In 1956 he joined CML in the policy loan department, and in 1964 was named assistant manager in electronic controls, where he worked until his retirement.Richard was an avid music lover and listener. He played piano and organ, serving as organist at the Colebrook Congregational Church for a number of years.He is survived by two sisters, Norma Becker and her husband, Roy, of Vancouver, Wash., and Colleen Insel and her husband, Albert, of Edgewood, Wash.; and eight nieces and three nephews.He was predeceased by his parents, Ezra and Stella Blankenship; and his youngest sister, Mary Bays.A memorial service will be held at the Colebrook Congregational Church in Colebrook at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to the Colebrook Congregational Church, PO Box 14, Colebrook, CT 06021; or to the Parkinson Foundation, PO Box 20256, Sarasota, FL 34272, www.parkinsonresearchfoundation.org. Arrangements are under the care of the Newkirk-Palmer Funeral Home in North Canaan.

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