BLACKBURN, FRANCES JANE SPRALDING

by Frances Jane Bladkburn

Entry F23 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Raymond E. Spralding Family. Raymond, Cherry
Edna, Frances Jane, and Harriett Elizabeth

Frances Jane was born in Mullen, Nebras-
ka, on Dec. 1, 1918, of Raymond and Cherry
Edna Spradling, just two days shy of the
birthday of her grandfather Edmun Enoch
Catron, at the time of her grandparents, Ed
and Jennie Catron. Her sister is Harriet
Elizabeth Keough.

Her parents lived at Hecla, where her
father was agent on the CB&Q railroad.
There was no way to get fresh milk, so about
every other day or so her grandmother would
pack a suitcase with milk and cream and put
it on the train in Mullen, destination Hecla
and the new baby. They lived in the apart-
ment over the depot. Night and day the trains
rumbled by, shaking the whole house, and
leaving a trail of soot and smoke.

After her father bid in the agent's job in
Seneca they moved there and when she was
four years old she started to school, graduat-
ing from Seneca High School in 1935. She
attended Nebraska State Teachers College at
Chadron for the better part of two years until
she was taken ill by Scarlet Fever and
quarantined at the school's dormitory. She
didn't return to college, preferring to work,
at first in Chadron for a shopper's guide, then
the Nebr. State office of Unemployment
Compensation. In 1939 she joined her moth-
er, sister and grandmother in Oakland,
California, where she enrolled in business
school. She worked for various companies,
including Oakland Title Insurance Guaranty
Company, Clorox and Marchant Calculators.

In 1941 she and Lester Charles Perkins
were married, after which she started work
at the Oakland Navy Supply Depot in
Oakland, California, and was there until
1945. In 1946 they were divorced and she
started work with Arabian American Oil
Company in San Francisco as Secretary to
the Internal Auditor, and in 1949 went to
Saudi Arabia to live and work for twelve
years. One of her jobs was Secretary in the
Saudi Arab Government Services of Govern-
ment Relations of the Arabian American Oil
Company. This was the department that
dealt directly with procurement matters for
the Saudi royal families. Another was Secre-
tary to the head of the Arab Industrial
Development Department. This department
was responsible for directing local people in
developing their country - electric plants,
laundries, farms, food production, construc-
tion of roads, etc.

It was in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia that she
met Harry Down Blackburn. They were
married in Kusnacht, Switzerland, on Octo-
ber 22, 1957. They adopted a boy Ingolf
Manfred when he was 8 years old.

In 1961 Harry retired and the family
returned to the United States to settle in
Santa Rosa, California. They have three
grandsons, Eric, Elliot, and Isaac.