Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Obituary

H. Blanton, 82, known for civic work, dies

Mr. Blanton represented the third generation of the family that owned Clearwater's first real estate firm.

By BETSY BOLGER-PAULET
Published December 9, 2005

CLEARWATER - Herbert Milton Blanton Jr., a Realtor and community leader whose family founded the city's first real estate firm, died Wednesday (Dec. 7, 2005) at Morton Plant Hospital. He was 82.

Mr. Blanton represented the third generation of a family that created Blanton Realty, a longtime Clearwater business. Blanton was also known for his civic and philanthropic work. In 1977, he was named Mr. Clearwater, the 19th man to receive the honor from the chamber of commerce.

But it was in the real estate business that the Blanton family first made its mark. When Mr. Blanton's grandfather, James M. Blanton, and his son, Herbert M. Blanton Sr., decided to open Blanton Realty in 1912, fewer than 2,000 people lived in Clearwater.

Only a year earlier, the first city hall had been built on N Fort Harrison Avenue, and the Florida Legislature had created Pinellas County by separating the Pinellas peninsula from Hillsborough County. That took place four years before the wooden bridge was built to connect the mainland with Clearwater Beach and three years before Clearwater was chartered as a municipality.

Over the next nine decades, the family business passed through four generations of Blanton men. When Herbert Blanton retired in 1991, leadership passed on to his son, James M., a fourth-generation Blanton who is still the company's business administrator.

After returning from World War II - he served overseas with the Army Signal Corps - Mr. Blanton joined his father at the office, which operated downtown since 1940. The company was first located at 319 S Fort Harrison Ave., later moved to 325 S Garden Ave., and in 1965 a branch office was opened on what was then considered the "outskirts of town" at 1638 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd.

Born Feb. 5, 1923, in Clearwater, Mr. Blanton graduated in 1941 from Clearwater High School. He attended Emory University in Atlanta and Atlanta Law School before entering the Army Corps of Engineers in 1943. He served overseas until the end of the war.

Upon returning to Clearwater and establishing himself in the family business, Mr. Blanton married Edwina C. Creech on July 7, 1945. The couple lived in Clearwater, where they raised three children: son Jim, who now lives in Palm Harbor, and two daughters, Jane B. Battis, Hendersonville, N.C., and Carolyn B. Lawrence, Sophia, N.C.

Prominent in community activities and especially real estate and development, he was elected in 1965 to be president of the Clearwater-Largo Board of Realtors. Mr. Blanton was the first son named to a post previously held by his father (the late Herbert Sr., who was president from 1930-1935 and again during 1951).

Mr. Blanton was named chairman of the 1965 Heart Fund Drive for upper Pinellas County, a project adopted by the board in 1959.

In 1966, he was named Realtor of the Year by the same board, and in 1968 he was named Realtor of the Year at the 52nd annual convention of the Florida Association of Realtors. He was also elected treasurer of the state group.

In 1967, Mr. Blanton was named chairman of the city's first Minimum Housing Board of Adjustment and Appeals, and in 1968 he served as campaign coordinator for Wallace W. Blackburn, Democratic candidate for the Pinellas County Commission.

He was president of the Kiwanis Club of Springtime City in 1969. His other civic activities included acting as a two-term trustee of Morton Plant Hospital, director of the Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Boy Scout Fund Drive, member of the City Historical Commission, chairman of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, director of First National Bank of Clearwater and director of the Senior Citizens Advisory Board.

He was an active member of First United Methodist Church of Clearwater, which he served as treasurer and chairman of the board of trustees, administrative board, and stewardship and finance.

Besides his wife of 59 years, and three children, survivors include a sister, Mable Purviance, Sarasota, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Services will be 11 a.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church of Clearwater, 411 Turner St., with private burial at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park. The family requests donations be made to World's Children Inc., 950 First St. S, 206, Winter Haven 33880, or to the church. Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home, Clearwater, is in charge of arrangements.

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 01:18:14]