Who  Was "Opie"?

Lloyd Courtney Blanchard was the husband of Meribel,  the father of Dale and Linda Blanchard,  and the grandfather (in order of birth) of Kief,  Nick,  Miri,  Lucas and Ted.    He died in a helicopter crash in February of 1966.  Sometimes it shocks me to realize how many years ago that was.   The last memory I have of him was in our kitchen, him leaning up against the sink facing me, talking casually, as I sat at the breakfast nook cramming down my breakfast in order to make it to school.  This may or may not have been what happened that fateful day in February, but in my memory,  that is what I remember. We  Blanchards have no mention of him in our home pages, although four of us carry his last name, and Nick has "Lloyd Courtney" as his middle names.   Not mentioning him comes at least partly from the trauma of his death, the pain of the loss and the directions our lives took without his presence. My older sons rarely, if ever, heard his name mentioned. The three younger grandchildren are fortunate enough to know more about Grandpa Opie.

He was born in March of 1925, into the Blanchard family of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Our grandmother,  Edna MacQuarrie Blanchard, said  they began calling him Opie after his little brother, Howie, tried to say "Lloyd", but ended up saying "Oyd". There was a cartoon character in those days named "Opie". The name stuck. (And his four grandsons should be thankful neither of his daughters named them Opie!) The photo  is of blond haired Opie Blanchard sitting in the toy airplane, and his big brother Kendall.  circa 1927. He joined the Air Force in 1943, around the middle of WWII, met our mother while in training to be a pilot and stole her away from her fiancee. He flew "the hump" from China to India. When WWII ended in August, 1945, there were a lot of Americans to bring home. He didn't get back to the USA until the day after Christmas, 1945. Opie and Meribel Ann Moberly were married in January of 1946.

He was an Air Force rescue pilot in the Korean Conflict.   For photos from Okinawa and Korea, visit Opie's Korea - Okinawa Photos. He was a Democrat (appalled when I became a Nixon volunteer during my junior high years), a liberal spirit with a traditional mind, a Unitarian, and  an admirer of smart, beautiful women (see the picture of my mother?) After he left the Air Force in 1956). he worked for Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Connecticut as a tech rep, traveling the world. He went to Israel, Pakistan, Japan and other countries, absent from the family for months at a time.  We followed him to Germany in 1959,  for his 6 month stint there.  He eventually became a helicopter test pilot.   One of his many hobbies was soaring. If he was alive, I know he'd either be soaring still or checking out    Soaring   info on the net. The helicopter being tested that fell apart in February of '66 was to a rescue 'copter for Vietnam. I consider Opie to be another casualty of that war. He died, far too young doing work he loved. Perhaps it is better to die that way than to live a long life doing work you hate. But I wish he was still here.  I think about what we all missed, and I think about what he missed, too.    He would have loved the technology available in the world today.

He would have delighted in having 4 grandsons and would have spoiled his one and only and very smart and beautiful granddaughter!  He would have been a good match for Lucas and his knock-knock jokes. There are things I remember about him, silly things, that I want to pass on to my sister (who was only 12 when he died), and to her children as well as mine.   Ridiculous things, I suppose, nothing profound, things like his favorite T.V. shows,  music I associate with him such as The One  Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater,  Beep Beep, and Itsy Bitsy Teeney Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and a precious few conversations (too few). Today, much of that is "retro" - popular again with our kids. The summer of '64 and '65 we spent renovating a Renault Caravelle, a cute little sports car.   He had two - one in fairly decent shape, one which had been burned in a crash.  I helped him clean out the burned car so he could get parts and reconstruct this into a little convertible.   We all miss him,   even the 5 grand kids who never met him - they missing having a cool grandfather  and the stories he could have shared.

This page begun on March 21, 1997; updated June 1999     

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