July 9, 1890 - July 29, 1918
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July 9, 1890 - July 29, 1918
Pvt. Burney (Pake) Blankenship was the youngest son of Samuel Newton Blankenship and
Hortense Crenshaw
Blankenship of the Klondike Community. He was born on July 9, 1890 and died in France on
July 29, 1918. This was
during the Aisne-Marne offensive in which Allies seized the initiative, leading to an
Armistice the following
November.
Burney was married to Essie Colsen and they had one son, Herschel. In addition to his
parents, wife, and son, he
was survived by his twin sister, Bernice Blankenship Driskill, his older brothers: Frank
(Dock), Guy, Charles (Bud),
and Bailey; and an older sister, Price Blankenship Russell
============
As usual, the rest of the story is even more fascinating.
When I was a kid, I can remember my great grandmother, Hortense, hearing sounds at that
old house and saying,
"Listen, there's Pake! My boy has come home at last!" This would have been 20
plus years after he died. They sent
home a sealed casket so the old couple never got closure, never really believed he was
dead. Multiply that story a
million times and you get some picture of the high cost of war!
submitted by Kathryn Thompson Presley and Pat and Blake Blankenship
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