Kenneth Abbott Blakemore was born October 30, 1929 about one mile east of Brighton, Polk County, Missouri. He was the third child and third son of Flake Winston Blakemore and Tina Marie (Bridges) Blakemore. His early childhood was on farms near Willard in Greene County and near Walnut Grove in Polk County. He attended Willy, Scrougeout, Oak Grove, and Rice grade schools and two years at Walnut Grove High School. In 1945, the family moved to Sanger, Fresno County, California. Kenneth graduated from Sanger High School in 1947, returned to Missouri and attended Southwest Missouri State College at Springfield in 1947-48. Kenneth was a Korean War Veteran. He was an aircraft mechanic in the U. S. Air Force for almost four years and was honorably discharged July 9, 1952 with the rank of Staff Sergeant. Part of this time he was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas. Here he met and courted Miss Alice Louise Kruse. They were married in Weatherford, Texas February 14, 1951. IBM Corporation hired Kenneth August 10, 1952. He held a variety of jobs at several locations with IBM; as a Customer Engineer at the Riverside, California branch office from 1952 – 1960; Computer design and development at the Endicott, New York Development Laboratory 1960-61; Computer design and development and later Product Engineering Manager for the OS 360/40 System at the Poughkeepsie, New York Development Laboratory from 1961 – 1974; Office Systems Division Staff at Lexington, Kentucky from 1974 – 79; and Product Planner and Financial Planner at Austin, Texas from 1979 – 90. He retired March 1, 1990 as Senior Engineer after thirty seven years of employment. Kenneth and Alice now reside in Round Rock, Texas.

They are the proud parents of three children: Ronald Alvin Blakemore married to Linda Lou Wolf and living in Friendswood, Texas; Donna Jean Blakemore, New Windsor, New York; and Alan Kenneth Blakemore, married to Rene Lynn Cohrs and living in Blue Ridge, Texas. They have two grandchildren Nathan Andrew and Sharalyn Grace Blakemore Goins, married to Aron Benjamin Goins; Nathan and Sharalyn are the children of Ronald and Linda.

Kenneth’s funeral is January 22, 2013 at Condra Funeral Home in Taylor, Texas, viewing is at 10:00 AM. Burial will follow at Taylor City Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Williamson County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 585, Round Rock, Texas 78680-0585.

Obituary and memorial guestbook available online at www.dignitymemorial.com/condra-funeral-home.

Published in Austin American-Statesman on January 21, 2013