Elizabeth Dorsey Pagon Blanchard

Elizabeth Dorsey Pagon Blanchard July 12, 1918 - December 21, 2010 COLUMBUS, GA— Elizabeth Dorsey Pagon Blanchard died Tuesday, December 21, 2010, at Columbus Hospice. She was 92 years old. Mrs. Blanchard was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 12, 1918, the daughter of Margaret Pusey Dorsey Pagon and Robinson Cator Pagon. During her girlhood, Mrs. Blanchard traveled to France with her parents for a year during which she began her schooling in Paris. Later, she attended The Calvert School and Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore and Oldfields School in Glencoe, Maryland. As a young girl she began attending Camp Ken-Jock-e-Tee in South Strafford, Vermont and continued to visit there for the rest of her life. In 1943, Mrs. Blanchard married Mercer Carter Blanchard, whom she met at Johns Hopkins University Medical School where she was a lab technician and he was a medical student. After World War II and short assignments in Philadelphia and Baltimore, she moved with Dr. Blanchard to Columbus where he joined his father's pediatric practice. Mrs. Blanchard worked at the Children's Island Sanitarium in Marblehead, Massachusetts and for the Frontier Nursing Service in Wendover, Kentucky before her marriage. In Columbus, she was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church and was active as a volunteer with the Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministries, as a pink lady at Columbus Regional Hospital, as a docent at the Sibley Center at Callaway Gardens and as a volunteer with Uptown Ministries. She was a member of the Junior League of Columbus, Georgia, Inc. and The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia. She was also a member of The Country Club of Columbus and The Big Eddy Club. She is survived by her children: Betsy Staples and her husband Chuck, Belle Newton and her husband Blake, Peggy Smith and her husband Jerry, and Susan Blanchard Metcalf; by seven grandchildren: Charlie Staples and his wife Paige; Dorsey Hannahan and her husband Jim; Carter Staples; Samuel Newton; Margaret Richardson and her husband John; Kate Metcalf and Mary Metcalf and six great-grandchildren: Mac and Wynn Staples; Ellie Hannahan and Marien, Christopher and Mercer Richardson. A graveside service will be held at 4 o'clock pm on Thursday, December 23, 2010, at Parkhill Cemetery, 4161 Macon Road, Columbus, according to Striffler-Hamby Mortuary, Columbus. The Very Reverend Rich Martindale will officiate. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Trinity Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 1146, Columbus, GA 31902; Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministries, 1120 Lockwood Ave., Columbus, GA 31906; St. Francis Hospital Foundation, P.O. Box 7000, Columbus, GA 31908 or Columbus Hospice, 7020 Moon Road, Columbus, GA 31909. Condolences can be made at www.shcolumbus.com.