MARIAN BLANTON
1921 - 2019

Marian Jackson (Good) Blanton, 98, passed peacefully early Friday, Nov. 29, in Austin. Born Sept. 8, 1921 in Carrollton, Marian was the beloved only child of Willie Charlotte and Marion Good, both descendants of pioneer Peters Colony families. Bright and curious, Marian was a class treasurer and annual literary editor at Carrollton High School, and she danced the can-can at the 1936 Texas State Fair. She attended Texas Woman's University as a journalism student, where she was voted Aggie Sweetheart her sophomore year.
In 1942, she married her high school sweetheart, Jack Blanton. As the wife of this farmer, businessman, newspaperman, mayor, state legislator and stranger to absolutely no one, Marian brought graceful humility and a frank faith in God and goodness to their many endeavors. She did it all - running the newspaper when Jack was in school and she was pregnant with her first child, making campaign calls, hosting last-minute dinner parties for visiting foreign dignitaries and making small talk with Lady Bird Johnson. With beauty and humor, Marian made you feel as if you were doing everything much better. Stylish and well-read, she was led by her curiosity to discover the world and a drive to make it better.
As a devoted United Methodist, she taught Sunday school, led Bible study and organized vacation Bible school into her 70s. Like most women of her time, she gave the most of herself to her family. A devoted daughter, cousin, wife, mother, aunt, godmother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she loved us all fiercely. She remembered your friends' names. She made sure you got an ice cream birthday cake even though it was the hottest day of the year. She fixed three different kinds of enchiladas to satisfy us all. She suffered no foolishness, but when she got going laughing, we all laughed, too.
Marian is survived by her daughters, Joan Keck and Mary Watts, and their husbands, Kevin and Brad; by her daughter-in-law Georjean Blanton Renquist and husband Mike; grandchildren Chris Symmank and wife Johanna Green; Sonnet Blanton and husband Alex Wettreich; John Wood and wife Susanne Pasay Wood; Marion Helen and husband Brendan O'Sullivan; Madeleine Watts and husband Benny Worley; and Amelia Watts; and great-grandchildren Linus Wettreich, Cadence Symmank, and Nolan and Nora O'Sullivan.
Visitation 6-8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2 at Restland Cemetery in Dallas. Services 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, at Holy Covenant UMC in Carrollton. Graveside immediately afterward at historic Furneaux Cemetery in Carrollton, where Marian will be laid to rest next to her husband, Jack (2002), and son, Steve (1977).