Port Norris Legends
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Ethalinda Blackman
April 27, 1940 - December 3, 2021
Recognized as a Legend in History of Port Norris on April 22, 2023
By Joan Harper.
Presented by Michael Harper.
Ethalinda Blackman, who was always “Ethie” to me and to my children, was born during the early days of World War II and lived her earliest years in Leesburg where her father, Carl, worked at the Delaware Bay Shipyard. I remember that well because Carl’s office was next door to that of my new husband Bert. But Carl and his wife, Marjorie Hand Blackman, were no strangers to me nor were the many Blackmans that lived in the neighborhood where I grew up.
Just around the corner from my parent’s home lived Captain Smith and Elizabeth Blackman, Ethie’s paternal grandparents. Her maternal grandparents were Linda and Harvey Hand and there were too-many-to-count aunts, uncles, and cousins, most of whom married locally – it very well may be that Ethie is related to more people in the Port Norris cemetery than any of us here today!
Most of her family worked in the oyster industry.
And of course Captain Smith Blackman’s oyster boat was named – you guessed it – The Ethalinda Blackman (after his wife but his grand daughter never complained.)
Many of those members of her extended family are deserving of mention and lucky for you I will not try to unwind all that genealogy! But one stands out to my family: Ethie’s Aunt Lucy Blackman, a spinster lady (as we would have said at the time) who, for generations, looked after the nursery and early Sunday School at the Methodist Church, including looking after my three little babies. She also worked at Del Bay during the war years and her personal diary and letters are a history of that small bit of the war effort, the men and women who built the boats, and their captains. Lucy, was strong and a bit unconventional, in other words, a perfect role model for Ethie.
From Leesburg, Ethie’s family moved back to Port Norris where she began her education in the old elementary school, later moving to Greenwich where her father Carl and his brother-in-law operated the Greenwich shipyard.
After 8th Grade, Ethie attended Bridgeton High School, beginning her lifelong love affair with woman’s athletics – playing leading roles on championship Basket Ball and Hockey teams in what can truly be described as the Golden Age of BHS woman’s sports.
It was at that point in our intersecting lives life that Bert and I needed a babysitter and Ethie became a part of our extended family. In those days, 60 years ago, the did not run late buses for athletes, so Ethie spent may afternoons at our home waiting for a ride home; and she literally moved in when we needed to be out of town. My daughters Emily and Mary Annie found her to be a perfect role model and confidant, and my now seventy-five-year-old son Michael still has a crush on her!
Aspiring to be a physical education teacher, Ethie attended Trenton State Teacher’s College and began her life as a teacher in Vineland. After two years, she was inspired to join the Peace Corps and served in rural Venezuela before returning to the States to do a master’s at The Ohio State University.
Her next move was her last, taking a teaching position in Midland, Michigan where she taught Phys Ed until her retirement. It was in Midland that Ethie met her life partner, Veronica and they enjoyed many years together – teaching, community service, tending their home in Midland, spoiling the cats, and relaxing in their cabin in Grayling.
I think Veronica did the fly fishing and Ethie cooked the fish.
Her passions included strong support for the Humane Society. She was a voice for equal rights and voting access. She was on a branch of the family tree that wasn’t growing, but she always made time to and help care for the older ones.
And, not surprisingly, her up bringing hd taught her to “make do.”
I remember one time when I suggested that her car that was getting too decrepit for the long trips back to Port Norris where she and Veronica spent time every summer helping to maintain her grandmother’s house next to the old Parsonage on East Main Street. When I said, “Ethie, you really need a new car,” she replied, “Joan it only has 150,000 miles on it.”
If Ethie were here today, she, a lifelong educator, would be proud to see her name on the library but I am guessing that if she knew she was to be a “Legend” she would have blushed and said, “surely you can find someone more deserving than me.” Ethie was a genuinely humble person, and fun to be with. I always found it to be a joy to be with her, in my home here or when I visited her in Michigan.
Ethie would tell us she was just an ordinary woman, a woman of not much importance. But we should not forget that throughout her life she touched thousands of lives as a teacher, coach, mentor, role model, and friend. She inspired women of all ages to be strong; to follow their dreams; to be responsible citizens, parents, and family members; and to be leaders in their lives. Never having children, those women whose lives she touched are truly her legacy and her spirit will live on here as one of our Legends.
She was a dear friend and a loving daughter. Thank you for letting me reflect and share my memories of this extraordinary woman.
