Joseph A. Blanchard

Joseph A. Blanchard Jr., 86, passed away Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Born April 4, 1925, he was a lifelong resident of Baton Rouge. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Rosel Karlsson Blanchard; son and daughter-in-law, Michael Adrien and Kathrine Margaret Blanchard; sister and brother-in-law, Joan and Jimmy Correu, of Dallas; sister-in-law, Margaret Ann Blanchard, of Baton Rouge; and numerous nephews and nieces. He also leaves behind many cousins too numerous to mention. He was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph Adrien and Laura Alice Neames Blanchard; three brothers, Pierre A. Oubre, Alfred James Blanchard and Henry Franklin Blanchard; and sister, Elsie Sarradet. Visitation at Rabenhorst Funeral Home East on Friday, Nov. 4, from 12:30 p.m. until service in the chapel at 2 p.m. Graveside service at Greenoaks Memorial Park to follow. Immediately after finishing at Baton Rouge High in June 1943, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he flew on B-32 and B-29 bombers. He spent a brief period of duty in the middle Pacific Theater during World War II. After completing his military service, he attended and completed a B.S. degree at Southeastern Louisiana University and later received a fellowship and received a M.S. degree and some doctoral studies in psychology at Texas Technological University. Dr. Blanchard was honored with an international doctoral fellowship to the University of Stockholm, Sweden, where he did research and studies for a Ph.D. in clinical and social psychology. After finishing years of internship in Kalnar, Sweden, he traveled to Brussels, Belgium, where he started a private practice in clinical psychology and was a consultant to industry. After a six-year practice, he returned to Baton Rouge where he worked many years in psychology at East Louisiana State Hospital in Jackson and at the Louisiana War Veterans Home in Jackson. He worked in several parishes as a school psychologist. He was always proud of his endless work in the psychological field to reduce human suffering. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge.