Mary Etta (Tandy) Blankenship (1873-1960) was born to John and Sarah Tandy on August 9, 1873, in Taylor County, Kentucky. John was a farmer and Sarah stayed home and took care of the children. By 1910, she was married to Thomas Garnet Blankenship of Adair County, Kentucky. The couple spent the first thirty years of their marriage living in Taylor County. Thomas worked as a piano mover and a painter over the years. Mary stayed home and took care of the couple’s six children: James, Louis, Tony, Thomas, Ann, and Lee. By 1940, the couple was living in Louisville, Kentucky at 942 Dumesnil Street in the Park Hill Neighborhood. Thomas died of cancer in 1947. He was buried in Adair County at the Tarters Chapel Cemetery. Mary lived another thirteen years and never remarried. She suffered an accidental fall in her home, at 827 South Brook Street, and died from her injuries. She was 86 years old. She had outlived her husband and two of her children. Mary is buried at Eastern Cemetery.
