Mobile, AL—Blanding Vaughan Drinkard, Sr., age 94, died March 19, 2019 at Springhill Memorial Hospital after a brief illness. He was a native of Bogalusa, LA, reared in Covington, LA, and a resident of Mobile, AL for 76 years.
He is survived by two children, Blanding Vaughan Drinkard, Jr. (Linda) and Cheryl D. Brown (Jeffery); four grandchildren, Tara D. Barber (Matt), Jeffery A. “Beau” Brown (Vallery), Candice D. Lewis (Paul) and Bradford Blanding Brown (Jelaine); and five great-grandchildren, Daniel Wesley “Mack” Barber, Harris Vaughan Barber, James Holston Lewis, Ella Mendalyn Barber and Tillman Roan Lewis.
Mr. Drinkard is a veteran of World War II, where he served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific from May, 1943 to December, 1945, seeing combat at Roi and Namur, Marshall Islands and Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands.
He was married to Dolores N. Harris on May 20, 1949 at Mobile, AL. He began work as a nurseryman at Robert O. Rubel’s Longview Nursery in 1950, where his life-long admiration for the camellia began. He worked at Brookley Air Force Base from 1954 until its closure as chief agronomist. Thereafter, he was self-employed in the horticulture business.
After working with camellias for over sixty-five years, Mr. Drinkard became known to many as “Mobile’s Dean of Camellias”, sharing his extensive knowledge of camellias with others. He developed many new varieties of the Camellia japonica grown from seed, examples of such being Erle Stanley Gardner (author of Perry Mason), Daystar, Eddie and Edward Greene and Cheryl Drinkard.
He was devoted to, and depended on, his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He enjoyed many positions in the Baptist churches to which he belonged, but especially enjoyed teaching Sunday School.
Mr. Drinkard was devoted to his family, his work, and his God, and leaves family and friends to cherish his memory.
Services will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2019 at Pine Crest Cemetery, with visitation to begin at 9:30 a.m. and a graveside service to follow at 11:00 a.m. Memorials can be made to Salvation Army of Mobile.
