LIndsey Jeanblanc

Lindsey R. Jeanblanc, 95, a longtime resident of New Braunfels, Texas died on April 3, 2006 from complications of a stroke. He was the youngest of five children, the son of Abel F. and Alice Ligon Jeanblanc and was born June 16, 1910 at their home in Lee Center, Illinois. He graduated in 1932 from Blackburn College at Carlinville, Illinois with an Associate Liberal Arts Degree. Blackburn was a two-year college where the students were assigned jobs to pay for their room and board. One of his jobs there, learned from his farm experiences, was to run a team of mules which none of the other students was able to handle. Another was to "fire" the college boiler system. He continued his studies at the University of Illinois at Champaign, Illinois, graduating in 1935 with a B.A. Degree in History (Phi Beta Kappa). He attended Law School at the University of Illinois, where he was Editor of the Law Review, Order of Coif, and received a J.D. Degree in 1937. As a law student, he held a part-time job teaching business law in the undergraduate Commerce School there. His advanced law education was at the Columbia University Law School in New York, where he received a Masters-of-Law Degree (LL.M.) in 1938 and later a Doctorate-of-Law degree (J.S.D.) from Columbia Law in 1951. At the time he earned this JSD Degree, there were no more than ten persons in the United States holding a law doctorate degree. In 1938, he became a law professor at the University of Alabama, hired to establish a Business Law Department for the University's School of Commerce. In 1942, he joined the University of Louisville Law School as a Professor of Law, but the next year, the Law School was closed due to World War II and the absence of students. The University hired him as its business manager and the U.S. Navy employed him as its lawyer to negotiate naval wartime contracts. From 1946 to 1955 he was a Professor of Law at the Washington University Law School in St. Louis. He was noted for being a demanding professor and a tough grader. Many of his students became judges and one, a U.S. Senator. As professor, he wrote several law-review articles, one supporting the notion ( not the law at the time) that manufacturers (who sold through middlemen and not directly to consumers) should be liable to consumers for their defective products. This law-review article was cited in the opinions of several courts, leading to the establishment of case law that manufacturers indeed are liable to consumers in this indirect situation. In 1955, he retired as a law school professor and returned to Illinois to manage the local telephone company serving several towns including his hometown. The company was in a poor state having the old magneto, crank telephones with little access to financiers who would provide the funding for the purchase new equipment and construction of new telephone lines. Over the next several years, he managed to build this struggling company into one with a modern dial telephone system. In 1962, the local company was sold to a national telephone company. Thereafter, he carried practiced law in Franklin Grove, Illinois, until he decided to retire in New Braunfels in 1977. He was a 32 degree Mason for over 60 years, member of the Scottish Rite, Alzafar Shrine and a member of the Eastern Star. He was a member of the Lee Center Masonic Lodge and a Past Master of that lodge and a Past Officer of the Eastern Star of Illinois. He was also a member of the Canyon Lake United Methodist Church. He was preceded in death by a son, Edward W. Jeanblanc and by brothers, Charles W. Jeanblanc and Ferdinand A. Jeanblanc and sisters, Ivo J. Feik and Edith J. Morris Waller. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Muriel K. Jeanblanc of New Braunfels; two sons, James K. Jeanblanc and wife Barbara of Arlington, Virginia and Donald R. Jeanblanc and wife Janet of Havre de Grace, Maryland; four grandchildren, Sara A. Jeanblanc and Michael C. Jeanblanc of Arlington, Virginia, Susan J. Cohen and husband Curtis of Havre de Grace, Maryland and Mark E. Jeanblanc and wife Sarah of Baltimore, Maryland and two great-grandchildren, Lindsey J. Cohen and Ethan A. Cohen of Havre de Grace, Maryland. Visitation will be from 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Zoeller Funeral Home and continue until service time Wednesday. The family will be present to greet friends from 9-10 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Services will be Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. in the Zoeller Funeral Home chapel. Visitation will continue at the Mihm-Jones Funeral Home in Amboy, Illinois on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. Services there will be Friday at 10:00 a.m. in the funeral home chapel. Interment will follow in the Woodside Cemetery in Lee Center, Illinois. The family requests that memorial contributions be given to Hope Hospice, 611 N. Walnut Ave, New Braunfels, Texas 78130, Canyon Lake United Methodist Church, 206 Flintstone, Canyon Lake, Texas 78133 or charity of one's choice.

LIndsey Jeanblanc

June 16, 1910 - April 3, 2006