Alice Anne Howard Blanchette, 84, of Beaumont, died Tuesday, September 4, 2012. She was born on December 30, 1927, in Floresville, to Tessa and John D. Howard, and had been a lifelong resident of the Beaumont area. Her father, John, was the District Director of the Texas Employment Commission. After several moves, they settled in Beaumont when Alice was ten years old.
She attended school in the Beaumont Independent School District until her sophomore year when she transferred to St. Anthony's High School. She met the love of her life, Pete Blanchette, the summer before she began attending St. Anthony's, at Redic's Ice Cream Parlor.
As a senior, she attended Our Lady of the Lake High School in San Antonio, Texas. After high school, Alice returned to Beaumont and began work at Kinsel Ford Motor Company.
Pete and Alice dated until 1946, when they were married at St. Anne Catholic Church, and they began their family right away.
As a full time mother, Alice was very involved in her children's lives. She was room mother, President of St. Anthony Elementary PTA, District Director of Sabine Area Blue Bird Organization as well as others. When her youngest child started school, Alice went to work for the Texas Employment Commission for the next twenty years.
She and Pete spent time traveling with her sister Mary and her husband, Merrill Connally. They were often accompanied by her mother, Tessa Howard.
They spent several years on her sister's ranch living the country life watching the sun rise and set over the rolling hills in Wilson County.
Together they decided that life was good there, but they missed their children. Pete and Alice then moved back to Beaumont and became involved in their grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s lives, as they had been with their children.
As time moved on they moved into the Sunnyside Villa's and became an integral part of that very close knit community.
Alice is survived by her husband, H. L. “Pete” Blanchette; daughters, Becky McKeller and her husband, Charles, of Pflugerville; Mary Blanchette Miller and her husband, Jim, of LaBelle; Tessa Koch and her husband, Craig, of Beaumont; and Dianne Beaver and her husband, Ken, of Spring; sons, John Howard Blanchette and his wife, Betty, of Woodstock, Maryland; Lin Blanchette and his wife, Donna; and Mark Blanchette, all of Beaumont; sister, Mary Connally of Floresville; twenty-one grandchildren; twenty-three great-grandchildren; nieces; nephews; cousins; “adopted” children and their children; and too many friends to list.
She was so much a part of so many peoples’ lives for many years. All the hearts she has touched will forever miss her love and kindness.
A Christian Vigil for Mrs. Blanchette will be 5:00 p.m., with a gathering of her family and friends to follow Friday, September 7, 2012, at Broussard’s, 1605 North Major Drive, Beaumont. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated 11:00 a.m., Saturday, September 8, 2012, at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church, 6825 Gladys Avenue, Beaumont, with her committal to follow at Broussard’s Crematorium, Beaumont.
The family would especially like to thank all of the caregivers of Texas Home Health and her special caregiver, Nettie Holmes, for the past four years.
