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Mary passed peacefully in her sleep on September 11th at the Friendship Village Retirement Community in Dublin, Ohio where she had been a resident since 2007. Born Mary Juliet Morrison on January 26, 1924 to Robert Byron and Florence Perfect Morrison, Mary and her six siblings, two of whom passed away as young children, grew up in Zanesville, Ohio, first on Jewett Drive in the Putnam neighborhood, and later on Convers Avenue. She graduated from Lash High School and then The Ohio State University with an elementary education degree. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at OSU. After graduation she taught elementary students in Upper Arlington, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Mary married a WWII Air Force veteran, Don Blancett, also from Zanesville. They moved back to Zanesville where she spent the next twenty-five years as a stay-at-home mom, raising two sons, Jeffery Ward (1948) and Robert Scott (1949) Blancett. Mary then returned to school at Ohio University graduating with a Masters degree in educational counseling. Following a divorce, she was a guidance counselor in the West Muskingum School District outside Zanesville and in a Columbia, Missouri School District. Mary moved back to the Columbus Ohio area in the late 1970’s and married Reed McClelland, mayor of Upper Arlington, in 1980. They resided in Upper Arlington until moving to Friendship Village Dublin in 2007. Reed preceded her in death. Mary was special; a critical thinker, sociable, funny, fashionable, whimsical, passionate about getting to know all whom she met, a lover of books, dance, and music, and a mother who loved her family unconditionally. She is survived by Jeffery Blancett of Dayton, Ohio, and Robert and Kathy Blancett of Lake Barrington, Illinois along with five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. The immediate family plans a memorial service for her in 2023. Her remains will be interred at Greenwood Cemetery with other Morrison family members in Zanesville, Ohio. |
