Short Bio for Barbara Blanc
BARBARA BLANC·MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2016
A short bio of my life for the last 50 years is impossible to encompass the actuality of that many years. Condensed is always good. One might get a little bored reading to the end of a long bio and we don’t want that. Two weeks after graduation I married Jerry Walton, also known as JB Walton. We attended Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon and then onto Boise State College. We had two little girls, Tiffinie and Triena. We left Boise and moved to Pocatello for job placement. During the time in Pocatello we had a son, Indy Walton. During the nine years I lived in Pocatello we operated two service and repair stations. I did all the business end of the company while Jerry did the mechanical. White in Pocatello I got into racing cars. I raced on the stock car track in the mini stock division. Lots of fun. June of 1973 6 months after my brother Trennis Blanc was killed I traveled to Alaska, and for three weeks my parents showed me the majestic state. I was more than ready to leave Idaho and relocate to Alaska.
Leaving Pocatello in the fall of l976, after my divorce, I worked for Morrison Knudsen in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Here I met and married Frank Cardin, who had two little boys of his own, Shane and Bryce. August of l978, we packed up the five kids with the dog and cat and drove the Alaska/Canadian Highway (Alcan) to Fairbanks, Alaska where we made our new home. Within a month of arriving in Fairbanks, I had a job working at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The summer of 1979 we traveled to Kodiak Island where my brother Richard Blanc and my parents owned a commercial fishing operation. I fell in love with the fishing life, loved being on the ocean and catching lots of salmon. Returning from fishing in 1979, I transferred departments within the University of Alaska, Fairbanks to the Cooperative Extension Service, taking on personnel/accounts payable/purchasing/and payroll. In 1987, I was promoted to business manager for Extension. Retirement and Affirmative Action director were added to my title.
In 1982, I purchased my own commercial fishing operation in Bristol Bay Alaska, which was and still remains the “red salmon capitol of the world”. I fished for two months, June and July. My spare time in Fairbanks was devoted to family and all the activities my children were involved in. But that apparently wasn’t enough. I had a general contractors license and built apartment buildings and spec houses. Then I opened up a rental and real estate management company, then a 11 unit bed and breakfast and a sub sandwich shop. During the fishing season of 1989 my life was irrevocably changed. While at fish camp, I received a message that my parents were in a plane crash and my daughter was in labor with my first grandchild. The next several years, were spent helping my parents recover from the plane crash. Having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in November 1986, by 1990 I could no longer continue the workload and pace that I was living. So I retired from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. By 1993 I had turned over all my businesses to a realtor and left Fairbanks. Driving the AlCan Highway again to the lower 48, I traveled for many months then spent most of 1994 in Mexico.
After returning from Mexico and fishing the summer of 1994, Frank and I divorced. I spent the next several years traveling between my children in Provo, Utah and my parents in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, still fishing in Bristol Bay Alaska in the summer and spending time with my Alaska family. 2000 was the year I started taking grandchildren out to Bristol Bay with me to commercial fish. My health was getting better and the MS pretty much in remission most of the year which I confess had a lot to do with my divorce. This is also the year that my son Indy and I decided that we would be business partners in commercial fishing. In 2001 my Dad and eight cousins and I flew to Italy to the Aosta Valley thirty-five miles from the base of Mt. Blanc, where my ancestors on the Blanc side lived. We met thirteen Italian cousins and still correspond with several of them. My Dad told me just before he died that he dreamed of that trip all his life. In 2002, my dad died of a heart attack. I decided to live with my mother fulltime, taking care of her. She passed away in 2006.
I now have eleven grandchildren. Ages ranging from twenty-seven to seven. Seven girls and four boys. The oldest six are doing great either working or in college. Over the last fifteen years, I have had seven of my grandkids fishing with me, with plans to have the last two come fishing when they are ten years old. My life is very full, busy and rewarding. I travel a lot, drive my “old” cars, ride my horses, go fishing commercially and sport fishing in Alaska. I love to spend time with the family. Scrap booking, writing books, reading books, journal writing, and planning new places to travel. My health has continued to improve, which I credit the Lord for. My family is a constant joy. I spend six months of the year in Alaska. Six months in Utah. During the Utah time is when I travel to Mexico, Hawaii, Europe, take cruises, and road trips. I don’t know what the future holds, but plan on making the best of those years as long as possible.