Schoolteacher toured country after retiring

10/19/2004

FINDLAY - Martha S. Blazer, who taught fourth grade in area schools for 27 years and who toured North America with her husband in an Airstream travel trailer, died Friday evening in her home at age 86.

Mrs. Blazer died of complications from cancer, said her son, James M. Blazer.

Born Martha Shull in Vanlue, she graduated from Vanlue High School in 1935 and then completed the two-year teaching program at Bowling Green State University in 1937. She taught in what was then the Liberty school district for four years until she married Charles A. Blazer, a fellow teacher.

When Mr. Blazer entered service in the Navy later that year, she moved to New York to facilitate travel to the various coastal ports at which his ship called. She found work there as a secretary.

The couple returned to the Findlay area after World War II ended, and Mrs. Blazer tended the house until 1951, when young James reached kindergarten age and she went back to the classroom, this time at Mount Blanchard Elementary School.

During the early 1960s, Mrs. Blazer returned to Liberty, which by then had consolidated with the neighboring Benton district.

She and her husband, by this time a school administrator, both retired in 1974. After that, they traveled throughout North America, including Mexico and Alaska, with their trailer, son James said. Charles Blazer died on Jan. 12, 2003.

Along with her son, Mrs. Blazer is survived by a sister, Ruth Kirkpatrick, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a brother, a sister, and a grandson.

The body will be in the Kirkpatrick-Behnke Funeral Home, Findlay, where the family will receive visitors from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. today. Funeral services will begin at 10:30 a.m. in First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Findlay.

The family suggests memorial tributes to the church.