Fred Blanding - Family and Automotive Business

Family and Automotive Business

On 28 November 1914 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Blanding married Clara M. Shields of Cleveland.

After retiring from baseball, Blanding owned and operated the Ford Motor Company agency, sales office, and service facility for Lansing, Michigan, and adjacent territory. The business was originally a partnership with J. C. Clarkson, but Blanding purchased Clarkson's interest in the business in 1917. According to Rich Adler's history of baseball at the University of Michigan, Blanding's operation was one of the early Ford dealerships. In 1920, Blanding announced that, due to growth in the business, he would build a new facility at Lansing that would include a large garage and show room in a building with three stories and 5,400 square feet of floor space.

In the early 1920s, Blanding also served as the president of the Lansing Senators, a baseball team that played in the Central League in 1921 and 1922. In May 1921, The Sporting News reported that Blanding "has announced on various and sundry occasions he intends leaving his auto sales-rooms and going out to the lot, where he is going to take off his coat and put the young pitchers of the Lansing team through a course of sprouts."

At the time of the 1920 and 1930 United States Censuses, Blanding was living in Lansing, Michigan, with his wife Clara, three children (George, Robert and Katherine) and a live-in maid or servant. His occupation was listed in 1920 as the manager of a garage and in 1930 as the president of a Ford and Lincoln distributorship.

In 1935, Blanding entered the automobile business in Roanoke, Virginia. He continued in that business for 15 years with the exception of a period during World War II when he worked at the Radford Arsenal. In a draft registration card completed in April 1942, Blanding noted that he was living in Roanoke and employed by the Hercules Powder Co. in Radford, Virginia.

In July 1950, Blanding died at age 62 from a heart attack at his home in Salem, Virginia. Blanding was survived by his wife and three children. He was buried at the Franklin Cemetery in Franklin, Michigan.