Decatur | Marian Blankenship knows how to tell a good story. And at age 92, she has a lot of good stories to tell. Still active, she teaches a Sunday school class and until recently played the trombone in her church’s praise band.
Marian grew up in the central Illinois village of Heyworth, where her father farmed and taught agriculture. “He taught veterans who came back from the war,” she said.
He also held a seminary a degree, as her parents had prepared to go to Africa as agricultural missionaries. But the Great Depression engulfed the nation and dried up their support. “So, he ministered here,” Marian said. “He taught Ag and preached. My Daddy was a preacher, and then I married a preacher.
She was married to her husband, Dennis, for nearly 65 years. “He dated all the other girls, except me,” she said with a mischievous smile. “I like to say he saved the best till last.”
Marian Blankenship
Dennis pastored churches in Beecher City, Farmer City, Gillespie, Girard, Heyworth, Lincoln, and Springfield. After his retirement, he served as senior adult pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur where Marian is still a member. Looking back on their years together, she said, “What a wonderful ministry we had, and all in Illinois.
She lost her beloved Dennis when he died in 2018 at 87. They raised three daughters and one son who all live nearby and check in on her often. She also has numerous grand- and great-grandchildren.
“We have a close-knit, very close-knit family” is how Marian describes them. “We love to get together and work and play together and worship together. And I’m so thankful for my wonderful family.”
Marian began playing both the piano and trombone at age 8. “My folks, they liked the tone of it rather than a shrill tone” of other horns. “It was more of a soft, muted tone.” That made practicing at home more acceptable.
Still, the horn was cumbersome to carry. “On the school bus, when I was trying to get down the aisle, I was hitting all the kids on the side,” Marian chuckled.
Newlyweds Dennis and Marian Blankenship with their wedding party on November 22, 1953.
Her family is musical too. Marian saw to it that all four of her children learned to play a musical instrument. Now, she’s trying to find a family member to pass her trombone on to.
“I talked to one of the little boys,” she recalled. “I said, ‘When I am ready to give up my horn, would you like to play the trombone?’ He’s just seven, so it might be a while yet.”
Marian teaches the Rachel class, a Sunday school class for women in their 90s. She’s been told it’s the oldest age group class in the church’s history. Her assistant, who is 88, is allowed in the class despite her young age. The class has five members, although it did have 10. Marian said some have “passed away while a couple of them are in nursing homes. But being our age, you know, dying is our promotion to heaven.”
Ministry partners
During his years in ministry, Dennis was a bivocational pastor “because he wanted to mingle with the people and get acquainted with them,” she said. Dennis drove a school bus for 10 years.
The Blankenships worked together in the ambulance service he organized in Gillespie. Dennis was the driver, and Marian trained to become an EMT. “It was a ministry,” she said. “I had prayer with them when I was there as an EMT behind the driver. Sometimes they would just relax when you would show them that you were a Christian, that the Lord loved them.”
Their first ambulance was a converted hearse. “Can you imagine going and picking people up that are ill in a hearse?” Marian laughed.
The Blankenships pose with a stretcher and ambulance from the ambulance service they organized.
Marian said she thanks the Lord for GuideStone’s Mission:Dignity. “It just always amazes me how they would help me right when I needed it,” she said, noting it has helped her pay medical and home repair bills. The ministry provides financial assistance to retirement-aged Southern Baptist ministers, workers, and widows. It’s funded by Southern Baptists.
On her first Christmas without Dennis, she was home alone when a delivery person came to her door with a package. “I said I didn’t order anything, but it was from Mission Dignity,” Marian said with tears in her eyes. “Inside was a knot blanket that the ladies on staff had done. There was a card that was so comforting, telling me ‘You’re still remembered and we’re praying for you.’” I cried.
Marian Blankenship with her late husband Dennis in an undated Christmas photo.
Today Marian looks forward to daily phone calls from grandchildren, asking prayer. “They want me to pray with them about joys and the problems that they have in their life every night. It’s blessing that they have a desire for prayer and that I can pray with them.”
The trombone-playing prayer-warrior pastor’s wife is still ministering every way she can.
