Elaine Blackburn

Elaine Blackburn, age 94, passed away at her home in Friendship Village, Dublin Ohio, on October 25, 2008. Elaine was the quiet, unassuming leader of the Blackburn family. She was content laboring behind the scenes to provide a solid upbringing for her family, while humbly supporting her husband of 68 years, George Blackburn, a man much in the public spotlight of collegiate and professional football.

Born in Vanlue, Ohio and raised in the practical, can-do spirit of a northern Ohio farm, Elaine was a graduate of the Findlay College of Business. She was meticulous in her care of the family home and dedicated to the day-to-day care of her husband and their four children. She is remembered by her family as a patient, kind and resilient mother and homemaker, a gracious hostess, and a bulwark of the values manifested by home, hearth and family. Elaine lived a long life with many joys and few disappointments. She embodied the Lord’s exhortation to be a “doer of the word, and not a hearer only”.

Elaine Bright Blackburn, devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, is survived by her children Judith Ann Epley of Telluride, Colorado; Janice Elaine Hart (Tony) of Columbus, Ohio; John Bright Blackburn (Sandra) of Cape Charles, Virginia; and James William Blackburn (Ellen) of Keuka Park, New York. Also surviving are her grandchildren Thomas Epley (Kelley), Jacqueline Epley, Alison Rocks (Doug), Jessica Wyman (Phillip), Jamie Blackburn (Krista), Kit Blackburn, Mary Clayton Blackburn, and Robert Blackburn; as well as her three great-grandsons, Ethan Rocks, Caleb Wyman, and Davis Blackburn. Surviving nephews and nieces are Tom and Ann Buis, Sally Buis, Jerry Blackburn, and David and Kay Blackburn. Elaine’s legacy of care, comfort and concern lives on through all of them. She now joins Blackie away from this physical world, but remains very much in the soul and spirit of the Blackburn family.

The family will receive visitors at the Tidd Funeral Home in Hilliard, OH, 5265 Norwich Street from 6 to 8pm on Monday October 27, 2008. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, October 28 at 10 am at St. Brendan the Navigator Catholic Church, 4475 Dublin Road, Hilliard Ohio. Internment will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Lockbourne, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials in Elaine’s honor be sent to the George and Elaine Blackburn Scholarship Fund at the University of Findlay, c/o Development Office, 1000 North Main Street, Findlay, OH, 45840.