Gloria ‘Sam’ Blanc

Gloria “Sam” Blanc, formerly of Westport and Newtown, died at River Glen Nursing Home in Southbury on April 13 after a long illness. She was 77.

 Mrs Blanc is survived by two sons and their wives, Richard and Barbara (Honeycomb) Blanc of Newtown, and Jon and Linda (Garrity) Wright of Marston’s Mills, Mass.; and four grandchildren, Robert and Connor Blanc of Newtown and Danny and Rebecca Wright of Marston’s Mills, Mass.

 For more than 25 years, Mrs Blanc was a secretary in the Westport School System. She worked at Staples High School and Westport Teacher’s Center. For many years she was the president of the school secretaries’ union. When you needed something done, she was the person you wanted on your side. She gave of herself daily.

Mrs Blanc was a no-nonsense person who fought for the rights of those less able to speak out.

Her husband, Norman, preceded her in death. Both were very active in the Westport Little League and Babe Ruth programs. A scoreboard was erected in Mr Blanc’s memory at the Little League Field. After the death of her husband, Mrs Blanc continued with her love of baseball by organizing and running The Snack Shack at the field. She also coordinated the umpires. When she ran into a shortage of umpires, she pressed her two sons into action.

The family would like to thank all of her friends for their prayers, thoughts, cards, notes and support during these difficult months.

 A family graveside service was held on April 14 at the Mt Eden Cemetery in Hawthorne, N.Y.

The family requests donations be made to Save The Children, 54 Wilton Road, Westport CT 06880, or The Newtown Baseball Association, c/o Kevin Gregoire, 4 Patriot Ridge Road, Sandy Hook CT 06482.

The Newtown Bee        April 29, 2005