USS Tidewater

OBITUARY

BLACKSTOCK, WILLIAM SANFORD, SR.

William Sanford Blackstock, Sr., 88, passed away June 9 due to complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was a resident of Eden Gardens Assisted Living Center in Marietta, GA. The oldest of six children born to Jesse and Savannah Portwood Blackstock, he was born in Clem, GA on March 27, 1921. He was preceded in death by his wife of 43 years, Winnie Cosby Blackstock and by two younger brothers, J.D. and Fletcher.

Mr. Blackstock joined the U. S. Navy in 1939. He was a Signalman stationed aboard the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and was a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. He also served aboard other ships and at several Naval Training facilities during his Navy career. He was a member of the USS Tidewater and USS Laffey Associations.

After his WWII service, he worked as a mechanic for fledgling Delta Airlines in College Park, GA, where he met Winnie, also a Delta employee. They married in 1946. He left Delta and went to work at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Doraville, GA, then reenlisted in the Navy during the Korean Conflict in 1951. He retired from the Navy in 1971 after 25 years of service.

Sanford and Winnie moved to Clearwater, Florida in 1968, where he worked for 10 years with the Pinellas County School Board, and later at the Clearwater Country Club. More recently, Mr. Blackstock was a regular volunteer at Largo Middle School. He enjoyed being with the school children, and he provided newspapers to the classrooms, as well as donating personal computers for deserving students at the school. Mr. and Mrs. Blackstock were members of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater.

Mr. Blackstock is survived by his two children, Anna B. Hall (John), Marietta, GA and Williams S. Blackstock, Jr., New York, NY; sister Helen B. Chandler, McDonough, GA, brother Allen E. Blackstock (Virginia), Stockbridge, GA, sister Manelle B. Warr (Wright), Nashville, GA; granddaughters Jennifer K. Peeples (Rev. Chase), St. Joseph, MO and Christina B. Cotton (Jake), Ozark, AL; grandson Taylor M. Hall, Marietta, GA; two great-grandsons, Julian and Jameson Peeples; and numerous nieces and nephews.

The graveside service will be Saturday, June 20, 2009, at 11:00 a.m., at Oak Hill Cemetery in Newnan, GA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wears Valley Ranch, 3601 Lyon Springs Road, Sevierville, TN, 37862 (www.wvr.org), a children's home to which Mr. Blackstock also contributed. Cremation arrangements by H. M. Patterson and Son, Canton Hill.