Martha G. Blocker

Died peacefully at St. Augustine’s Home, Indianapolis, on Thursday, April 25, 2019. Born September 2, 1923, Columbus, Ohio, to Lona Smith Blocker and Henry Blocker. Educated at St. Mary of the Springs Academy and Ohio State University, Martha held a Bachelor’s degree in Education (Fine Arts) (1945) and an M.A. in Art History. She studied dance and performed in Louisville, Kentucky, and New York City, including a stint in the Rockettes in 1944. In the 1950s she taught at Holy Rosary High School, Columbus, and the Toledo Museum of Art. She taught art, music, dance, and calligraphy at St. Xavier College in Chicago before moving to Indianapolis in 1971, where she worked as Head Librarian of the Stout Reference Library at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, retiring in 1991. Deeply interested in religion after her conversion to Catholicism, Martha also studied Hebrew Bible literature at Notre Dame and loved to read and think about Christianity. Her artistic eye helped her to choose beautiful gifts for her family. She loved animals and helped to feed and rescue stray cats and dogs.

Martha was predeceased by her sister Katherine Blocker Simmons and brother-in-law James E. Simmons and is mourned by nieces and nephews Christina Simmons (Bruce Tucker), James Simmons (Ruth), Anne Wolpert, Katherine Simmons (Helmut Fortense), Martha Dogan (Kevin), Sarah Simmons, John Simmons (Margie), Dan Cantor (Katy), cousin Meredith Lisagor-Savage (Mark Savage), and their children and grandchildren, Matthew and Daniel Tucker-Simmons and Jonas August-Tucker, Paul and Carl Simmons, Julia Wolpert, Rebecca Yagerman Deming and Joanna and Sarah Yagerman and Fiona Finney, Rachel and John Dickson, Katherine Rose Thale, Chad and Zoe Simmons, Courtney Cantor and Abigail Cantor Katz.

Visitation at noon and funeral mass at 1 PM, Monday, April 29, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 5692 Central Ave., Indianapolis. Burial , at.1 PM, Tuesday, April 30, at St. Joseph Cemetery, 6440 South High St., Lockbourne, Ohio.