Ann Blackburn
Ann Blackburn died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, January 18, at Monticello House in Riddle Village, Media. Complications of the dementia she had suffered through for the past several years finally took her life.
Ann was born in Wanstead, England, on February 20, 1935, to Amelia and Sidney Leigh. Bombed out of her grandparent’s pub in London’s docklands where they were staying temporarily at the start of the Blitz, Ann, her mother, and younger sister Dinah evacuated to a small village not far from Oxford. When her father finally returned from seven years of service in the Royal Engineers, including the D-Day landing in France, the family moved into Oxford. Ann completed a program in secretarial studies at the Oxford Technical College, and began work for a lawyer’s office dealing with many aspects of Oxford University’s affairs.
In 1957, she met Tom Blackburn at a party, while he was studying at the university as a Rhodes scholar. They dated for a while, but Tom returned to America to pursue a Ph.D. at Stanford, while Ann went to London and became an administrative assistant at a small advertising agency. They kept sporadically in touch. Then, in 1962, Ann decided to come to New York to visit her best friend, who by that time had married an old Oxford friend of Tom’s. Tom volunteered to meet her off the plane, and the interrupted relationship was seriously renewed. The result was their marriage in England on June 15, 1963. After a glorious European honeymoon, Tom brought Ann home to Swarthmore, where he was entering his third year as a professor of English at Swarthmore College.
Ann adapted readily enough to the peculiarities of American society and the academic life, without losing her English accent, her English sense of humor, or her “swinging London” sense of style, including skirts a good few inches shorter than the era’s U.S. norm. Her work as an administrative assistant in several different departments of Swarthmore College was interrupted by the birth of Adam in 1968 and Ben in 1969. Adam now lives in Frenchtown, New Jersey, with Deirdre (Stief) and their eight-year-old son, Charlie; Ben in Wallingford with Anne, and Peter and Kate. Family life was the source of Ann’s deepest joy and her proudest moments.
Ann also loved life in Swarthmore. She was a gracious and elegant host at parties and dinners, a voracious patron of the public library, and relished sitting in the sun at the swim club reading one of those library books while periodically jumping in the water to breaststroke her way toward a thousand laps. England nonetheless remained an important part of her life. Vacation trips and Tom’s sabbatical leaves for research enabled her to stay in touch with family there. After her parents died, her sister Dinah remained, and when she too died, contact continued with Dinah’s five children and their children as well as many cousins. All of the English survivors share their grief at the loss of their beloved Aunt Ann.
Once Adam and Ben were in school all day, Ann returned to work at Swarthmore College, retiring in 1995 as administrative assistant to College Librarian Michael Durkan, who was a friend, not just a boss. In that year, Tom and Ann sold their Elm Avenue home and moved into an apartment at the Strath Haven condominiums, with space and views they came to love. This became the venue for a new cycle of parties for friends and family. When, four years ago, Ann was diagnosed with dementia, fully independent living no longer seemed possible in the long run, and moving to a continuing-care retirement community seemed prudent. After considering several of the other area options, Ann and Tom moved to Riddle Village, and, last February, Ann entered skilled nursing care. Tom and the family want to give sincere and deep thanks to all the nurses and other caregivers at Monticello House for their skillful and compassionate work with Ann; to Compassus Hospice; and to Denise Mattus of Home Helpers, who cared professionally and warmly for Ann both before and after she entered skilled care. Ann’s body has been donated to medical science. A champagne celebration of her life is being planned. Rather than flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Please join us for a champagne celebration in honor of Ann Blackburn on Sunday, February 16. Open house from noon until 4:00 p.m. at the home of Anne and Ben Blackburn, 10 Berkshire Drive, Wallingford. Bring your favorite memories and a thirst for bubbles!
