Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9004020411
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

OBIT DOWNEY, B.

BLACKSBURG - Blanche S. Downey, age 84, of Warm Hearth Village, Blacksburg, formerly of Sun City Center, Fla. and Elm Hurst, Ill. died Friday evening March 30, 1990, in the Montgomery Regional Hospital. She was a member of the Blacksburg United Methodist Church and Mildred Wingard Doll Club and the Faculty Mothers Club of Virginia Tech. She was the widow of Eugene H. Downey and was preceded in death by her mother, Lilly Mae Pelligreen Smithson; and her father, Elmer Hayden Smithson, of Bloomington, Ill.; a brother, Albert Smithson, Bloomington, Ill.; a sister, Frances Howe, Aracadia, Calif. Surviving are one son and daughter-in-law, H. Bruce and Nancy R. Downey, Blacksburg; a half sister, Martha Vail; Tucson, Ariz.; a niece, Mary Frances Howe, Arcadia, Calif.; three grandsons, H. Scott Downey; Newport News; Stuart D. Downey, Arlington; David B. Downey, Blacksburg; two great-grandchildren, Shaun David Downey, Blacksburg; Jessica Ann Downey, Newport News. A memorial service will be 2:00 p.m. Thursday, April 5, 1990, at the Warm Hearth Village Activity Center conducted by the Rev. Eugene Chafin. The family suggest that memorial contributions be made to the Blackburn College Carlinville, Ill., 62626. Arrangements are being handled by the Richardson-Horne Funeral Home, Christiansburg.