Audrey B. (Blackburn) Baldwin

Mom died peacefully at her Cary, NC home, on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, where she resided with her only child, Sandra Kay Baldwin Duncan and son-in-law, John Lewis Duncan. Born on April 26,1927, in Sacul, Texas, to the late Lonnie Scott Blackburn and Verdahlia Serena Beck Blackburn.

Audrey attended Sacul High School and then Satterwhite Business College in Lufkin, Texas. It was during her time in Lufkin that she met her future husband, Ben. They married the day she graduated, November 16, 1946, and began their exciting life together.

Dad’s career as an oil and gas pipe-liner and contractor took them to many towns along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana. They made many lifelong friends during these travels. Mom loved her family and expressed her love by cooking and baking delicious dishes for them. Her talents excelled in bookkeeping, sewing, needlework, quilting, gardening, furniture refinishing and crafting. She worked as bookkeeper in Dad’s construction company, Ben Baldwin Contractor, in its early years, as well as many years as the church secretary of Belle Chasse Baptist Church.

She loved to sing and was a tenor in the Belle Chasse Baptist Church choir and sang in the Belle Chasse chapter of Sweet Adeline. She enjoyed bowling with the church bowling league. She was a 50-year member of the New Orleans and Nacogdoches, Texas chapters of Daughters of the American Revolution and loved genealogy.

Mom was passionate about her many years of service in the Eastern Star. She began her 50-year membership in Louisiana where she served as secretary/treasurer, Worthy Matron, and was honored to be chosen as chaplain of the state of Louisiana’s Eastern Star. She traveled with the Louisiana Worthy Matron to every Louisiana parish chapter of OES during this appointment. She and Dad also chaperoned a group of Rainbow Girls to California.

After retiring and selling the company and the Belle Chasse home, they moved back to Cushing. Not inclined to sit still for long, they worked tirelessly renovating their century old house. Mom enjoyed turning this lovely house into a homey place for family and friends to feel welcome. They joined Landmark Baptist Church and Mom served many years as secretary/treasurer of the McKnight Cemetery Association in Cushing, Texas. She was a wonderful mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother and will be greatly missed.

In addition to her parents, Audrey was preceded in death by her husband, Ben Garrison Baldwin; and her four siblings, Ephriam Scott Blackburn (Holly Nichols Blackburn), Robert L. “Bill” Blackburn (Bettie Jean Deming Blackburn), Edith Mae Blackburn Corley (Woodrow Wilson “Chuck” Corley), and Frank Odell Blackburn (Carolyn Louise McIntosh Blackburn).

Mom blessed our family in 2013 when she moved into our home in Cary. She has three granddaughters who live in NC, Jenny Rebecca Duncan Pritchard (Josh Pritchard) of Raleigh, Amanda Beth Duncan (Jeffery Bell) of Wilson, and Melissa Carol Duncan (Jason Lopez) of Raleigh. Her three great- grandchildren, Cullen Yosef El Jaouhari and Tegan Idris El Jaouhari of Wilson, and Amelia Joy Pritchard of Raleigh.

A funeral service will be held at 2:00 PM, Saturday, December 2, 2023 at Dickie Allen Funeral Home, 989 7th Street, Cushing, TX 75760, with visitation one hour prior to the service, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at the funeral home. Following the service will be an interment at McKnight Cemetery, 565 McKnight Cemetery Road, Cushing, TX 75760.

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