Joseph Edwin Blanton died at his home in Albany, TX on April 8. Born on March 8, 1908 in West Texas, he attended Central High School in Washington, DC, and received the BS and MFA in Architecture from Princeton University. During World War II he served in the Navy and was stationed in Italy for a time. After the war he taught in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas in Austin, and then returned to his home town of Albany to pursue private architecture practice. In 1957 he published The Organ in Church Design (Venture Press, Albany, TX), and seven years later, The Revival of the Organ Case (Venture Press). In 1971 and 1972 he published eight issues of a quarterly magazine, Art of the Organ, and in 1980 was made an honorary member of the OHS. Mr. Blanton's literary efforts were not limited to the organ. In 1936 he assisted his grandmother Sallie Reynolds Matthews in the writing and publishing of Interwoven, an account of life on the Texas frontier. In recent years he researched, wrote and published several books about various aspects of Texas history.
Wayne P. Drake died March 31 in Braintree, MA at the age of 47, following a long battle with AIDS and its complications. Born in Boston, he had lived all of his life in Braintree. He earned the Bachelor's degree from Eastern Nazarene College in Wollaston in 1969, and the MMus from Boston University in 1979. He served in the U.S. Army 1970-75 and was a member of the 7th Army Soldiers' Chorus in Europe. He taught music in the Abington schools up to 1994, and served as organist and choirmaster of St. John's Episcopal Church in Duxbury from 1978 until his death, and had also served as organist at Porter Methodist Church in Weymouth, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Dedham, First Congregational Church in Braintree, and St. Paul's Episcopal in Dedham. He was a member and former board member of the the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, a member of the Boston AGO chapter, and the Liturgy and Music Commission of the Massachusetts Diocese. He was a member of the steering committee of the Festival Organ Exhibit scheduled for fall 1995 at the Boston Museum of Science, and had been logistics and operations chairman of the 1990 AGO national convention in Boston. A memorial service was held April 22 at the Church of the Pilgrimage, Town Square, Plymouth Center.
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