Edith Leo Basinger Blanchard, age 90, died at Trinity Healthcare Center Friday, February 21, 2014. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Memorial Funeral Home. Her funeral will be Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 2:00 PM at Memorial Funeral Home with Dr. Albert Wilkerson officiating. Visitation will begin at 1:00 PM. Interment will immediately follow in Friendship Cemetery. One of nine children of the late Arthur Leo and Beulah Nixon Basinger, Mrs. Blanchard was born June 13, 1923 in Columbus. She graduated from S. D. Lee Senior High and worked briefly at Seminole Manufacturing. She was a longtime member of East End Baptist Church, the Winsome Sunday school class, and she was also a member of the Ladies Aid Society of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Her Sunday school class was very special to her. The members visited her daily during her illness and were truly her caregivers, bringing food and smiles and often parties to her, when she was unable to leave her home. She was predeceased by her parents, her daughter Beverly Ann Blanchard, brothers Thomas Basinger, William Basinger and Arthur Leo Basinger, Jr., sisters Mary Elizabeth Basinger and Elise Smith and her husband Arthur Raymond Blanchard. She is survived by a brother and sister-in-law Henry and Katie Basinger and a sister Peggy Cash, all of Columbus and a sister Ida Mae Rose of Long Island, NY. She is also survived by her nieces Nancy Sewell, Bonita Bryan, Sherry Fotinakes, Edith Ann Romans, Becky Cash, Cindy Hartley and Anna Basinger and her nephews Bill Basinger, Phil Rose and Cliff Basinger. She is also survived by numerous great nieces and great-great nieces and great nephews and great-great nephews. Pall bearers will be Randy Fotinakes, Tim Sewell, Bill Basinger, Cliff Basinger, Steve Hartley, Troy Romans and Travis Berry. Memorials may be made to East End Baptist Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 8480, Columbus, MS 39705.
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