Mary Lou Blanford

Mary Lou Blanford, 75, of Austin, Arkansas, passed from this life on Friday, October 6, 2023. She was born in De Soto, Missouri, on November 23, 1947, to the late Jones T.H. and Lola McKee Jetton. She graduated from Missouri State Beauty College in 1967, but she spent a majority of her professional career in sales. She was also instrumental in helping to start the Volunteers in Public Schools in Cabot in the early 1980s. Although she was in sales for many years, her passion was her music. She was a classically trained singer and was once offered an opera scholarship at Washington University in Missouri. Singing, playing, and directing music for her church and being involved in her community were very important throughout her life. Of all these attributes, her greatest accomplishment, by far, was her guidance, dedication, sacrifice, and unconditional love as a mother and grandmother to member of her family and others. Mary was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Larry Ross Blanford, to whom she was married for 27 years.

Mary is survived by her sons, Ross Henderson Blanford, Douglas Charles Blanford, and Neil Jonathan Blanford; thirteen grandchildren; and one great grandchild.

A graveside funeral will be held on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, at 11 AM at Mt. Zion Cemetery in Walcott. In lieu of flowers, Mary Lou requested donations be made to the Top Dog Catering Homeless Fund at https://gofund.me/777d8f8d.