Mildred Blanton Pinyan

With her beloved family at her bedside, Mildred Blanton Pinyan passed peacefully at home on Wednesday, October 9th, within hours of her 96th birthday. She was a kind and gentle soul who was dearly loved and will be greatly missed.
Mildred came into this world October 10, 1928, the second of seven children born to Walter E. and Victoria (Cox) Blanton. She grew up on her parents' farm in north Cherokee County, Georgia and graduated from Reinhardt Academy, Waleska, Ga in 1949. Beginning in her late teens, Mildred worked in several local establishments such as Fincher Pharmacy and the Canton Theater, among others. It was while working at the Bus Stop restaurant in downtown Canton that she met Bob Pinyan. Bob and Mildred wed in June 1954, welcomed their daughter, Yvonne, in May the following year, and were married until his death 44 years later.
During her decades as a military wife, Mildred accompanied Bob whenever he was stationed stateside, including bases coast to coast, from California to Delaware, Alabama to Illinois, and several years in Texas until Bob was reassigned to duty in Georgia in the mid-1970s. Mildred was an employee with AT&T Bell Corporation, and as such, she was able to transfer within the company every time they relocated. As a result, she enjoyed a long and interesting career, with jobs which varied from a switchboard operator to a telephone fraud investigator, before retiring after working 35 years in communications.
Mildred had a great love of family and her faith. Regardless of where they resided, family vacations were spent returning home to Georgia, and timed to be able to attend family reunions and summer church revival services. Mildred's home church was New Hightower Baptist Church, and she was baptized in Shoal Creek in her teens. During many of her later years she was active in the choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Canton.
Mildred and her husband also loved music and traveling to bluegrass festivals in their RV. They had a host of friends, and were well known in the bluegrass communities. For decades, they were music festival promoters of numerous annual bluegrass festivals including Wills Park in Alpharetta and Jim Miller Park in Marietta. They also organized countless fundraiser bluegrass festivals around Georgia to help others in their time of need.
She enjoyed her golden years living with her children: her daughter Yvonne, son-in-law Allen and grandson Alexander. Having her immediate family in close proximity to her was a source of great joy and happiness to Mildred.
One of the things she loved most in life, which could truly be considered her favorite hobby, was people – talking with them, asking questions and learning about them, trading stories. Mildred had a gift for remembering names, and a repertoire of entertaining stories she had accumulated in her nine decades of life. Many people truly enjoyed hearing her tell her stories.
Mildred lived a model Christian life of faith, hope, and love, and leaves a beautiful legacy of kindness we can all aspire to. Above all, Mildred embodied Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount – a shining light in the lives of everyone she met.
Mildred was preceded in death by her husband, Bobby J. Pinyan, her parents, Walter E. Blanton and Victoria Cox Blanton, and by her siblings Alene Blanton Jones, Dewey F. Blanton, Thurmond T. Blanton, Tim D. Blanton.
She is survived by her daughter Yvonne P. Bryant, son in law Allen W. Bryant, grandson Alexander W. Bryant, sisters Mozelle B. Jarvis and Monnie M. Blanton, numerous treasured nieces, nephews and cousins, and a host of dear friends.
The family will accept friends at Sosebee Funeral Home on Friday October 11th, from four o'clock in the afternoon until eight at night and Saturday October 12th, from one until three o'clock in the afternoon.
Mildred's memorial service will be held at Sosebee Funeral Home Chapel at three-thirty in the afternoon, and burial afterwards at New Hightower Church cemetery.