Emily Blackwell

Secret pen-pal “Ladybug” Emily Louise (Lenoir) Blackwell, 88, passed away in Chicago IL on Thursday, September 16th, 2021. She was born in Shreveport LA on March 28th, 1933, to Thomas W. & Dorothy (Kyle) Lenoir.

Emy graduated from Central High School (Class of ‘51) in Chattanooga TN, then attended the University of Chattanooga, where she was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She moved to Los Angeles CA and began working at System Development Corporation in Santa Monica, where she met Dale Lamar Blackwell, Jr. Emily and Dale married at Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles on March 19th, 1966, and lived in Westchester CA until 1973 when they moved with their five-year-old son Brad to Granada Hills CA, in the San Fernando Valley.

Emy enjoyed oil painting, taking studio lessons for several years from various teachers, including some well-known TV art instructors. She began working as an office secretary at Robert Frost Junior High School in the late 1980s, and retired in 1997.

Also starting the 1980s, Emily became an anonymous pen pal to terminally ill children. She participated in at least two programs that paired volunteers like Emy with hospitalized children across the country. Every month or so, Emily would send a card & letter, sometimes including a small gift, to her pen pals, always signing her anonymous letters with a rubber stamp of a red ladybug. Some children (or their parents) would reply to “Ladybug,” thanking her for lifting their spirits.

Emy spent the last years of her life enjoying spending time at home with her three grandchildren.

Emily is survived by her son Brad and daughter-in-law Jennifer, and her three grandchildren: Zoe, Skye, and Thomas (Chicago IL), in addition to her cousin James W. Kyle, Jr. (Shreveport LA). She was predeceased by her husband Dale in 2017.

Due to the pandemic, a traditional service was replaced with a small gathering of immediate family, who scattered her ashes in Lake Michigan on Sunday, September 26th, 2021.

In lieu of flowers, Emily’s family requests that a donation be made in her name to one of her favorite charities: Perry’s Place - Heaven on Earth (heavenlypets.org), or Smile Train (smiletrain.org).