LaBarre Blackman

1948 - 2025

LaBarre Wolfe Blackman, 77, died October 6 in Columbia, SC. Bar was born in the old McLeod Infirmary in Florence, South Carolina, on August 21, 1948, to Geraldine Denny Blackman and James Kentchen Blackman. He grew up in Greenville, SC, where he was an Eagle Scout and attended Greenville High School. He spent his senior year as an American Field Service exchange student in the Netherlands before going on to Duke University. In his youth he traveled extensively by car in Europe and the Middle East, including study at the School of Oriental and African Studies and a year of research in India. He later received a Master of Arts in history from the University of South Carolina and taught at various locales across the southeast including Richland County schools in Columbia, SC. Bar was a consummate intellectual who traveled widely, read widely, and loved good conversation. He inspired students, friends, and family.

Bar Blackman was predeceased by his parents, his sister Meriden Elizabeth Blackman, and his son Lewis Wardlaw Blackman, both of whom died at a young age. He is survived by his wife Helen Haskell and daughter Eliza Blackman. The funeral service will be 11:00 a.m. October 21 at Christ Episcopal Church, Macon, GA. Memorial contributions can be made to the Lewis Blackman Foundation Fund, Central Carolina Community Foundation, 2142 Boyce Street, Columbia, SC 29201 or online at https://bit.ly/LewisBlackmanFoundationFund.