Jacqueline Harrold Branch
Jacqueline Branch, a resident of Emporia since October 2004, died Saturday, July 7, 2007, at the Emporia Presbyterian Manor. She was 88.
Mrs. Branch was society editor and main street reporter for the Marion, Ind., Leader-Tribune. She was a hostess with the Welcome Wagon programs in Huntington, W.Va., from 1959 to 1966 and in Phoenix, Ariz., from 1966 to 1970.
The daughter of Edwin Orin and Ione DeMarcus Harrold, she was born March 22, 1944, at Marrion, Ind. She attended Indiana University at Bloomington, Ind., and was a lifelong member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority.
She married William Bradford Blake Jr., on March 22, 1944, at Atlantic City, N.J. They later divorced and he died Jan. 22, 1979. She married William Lewis Branch on May 5, 1966. He died Sept. 1, 1986.
Mrs. Branch was active with the Phoenix Synphony Guild, the American Graduate School of International Studies, the Boy’s Ranch of Phoenix and the Fiesta Bowl Parade.
She is survived by two daughters, Sandra Ast of Emporia and Laura Ann Blake of Denver, Colo.; one son, George Stevens Blake of Santee, Calif.; three stepsons, Steve Branch of Manhatten, Mont., and Bill Branch and Bob Branch, both of Winter Park, Colo.; one sister, Suzanne Boswell of Rockford, Ill.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Branch was cremated. The inurnment service will be at a later date at the Grant Memorial Park Cemetery in Marion, Ind.
Memorial contributions to the Emporia Friends of the Zoo may be sent in care of the Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home, P.O. Box 175, Emporia, KS 66801.