{"id":109296,"date":"2025-03-30T15:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T15:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/?p=109296"},"modified":"2025-04-02T15:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:16:12","slug":"gary-h-blanton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/2025\/03\/30\/gary-h-blanton\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary H. Blanton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Gary H. Blanton, age 86, of Inverness, Fl passed away March 30, 2025 at the Vitas Hospice Facility under the loving care of his family.&nbsp; Gary was born in Dunedin, FL on September 16, 1938 to the late Percy and LaRue Blanton and came to this area in 1989 from Maine.&nbsp; He served our country in the U.S. Air Force, retiring after 25 years as a SMSgt, following a tour in Viet Nam and several other duty stations.&nbsp; He attended the Hernando United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1991, he petitioned the Masonic Lodge for membership and was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason in 1992.&nbsp; The Masonic Lodge soon became a &nbsp;focus in his life.&nbsp; His Masonic affiliations included Citrus Masonic Lodge No. 118 (now Nature Coast), Memorial Masonic Lodge, Ocala Consistory Scottish Rite, Order of Eastern Star Chapter 65 (Past Grand Patron).&nbsp; While a member of Citrus Lodge, he served as the Worshipful Master three times as well as the Junior and<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior Warden, Senior Deacon, and Chaplain.&nbsp; He was also active in Grand Lodge, serving as District Deputy Grand Master, District Instructor, and several Grand Lodge committees. He was bestowed Masonry\u2019s highest honor being named as a 33<sup>rd&nbsp; <\/sup>Degree Mason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Left to cherish his memory is his wife of 37 years, Barbara Blanton; 5 children: Cynthia Blanton; Jerry (Heather) Blanton; Michael (Nang) Hunter; David (Mary) Hunter; Phyllis Hunter (Chris); his brother, Larry Blanton; several grandchildren and great grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friends may call at the Chas. E. Davis Funeral Home on Thursday, April 3<sup>rd<\/sup> from 5:00-7:00 PM.&nbsp; The O.E.S. Chapter 65 will conduct their service at 6:00 PM.&nbsp; Masonic Services will be conducted Friday, April 4<sup>th<\/sup> &nbsp;at 10:00 AM&nbsp; followed by a service at 11:00 AM with Pastor Shawn Klein of the Hernando United Methodist Church officiating.&nbsp; Burial with Military Honors will follow at Florida National Cemetery with the MacDill Air Force Honor Guard presiding.&nbsp; In lieu of flowers, memorials are requested to St Jude\u2019s Children\u2019s Research Hospital, 501 St Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 (Web site: st.jude.org)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gary H. Blanton, age 86, of Inverness, Fl passed away March 30, 2025 at the Vitas Hospice Facility under the loving care of his family.&nbsp; Gary was born in Dunedin, FL on September 16, 1938 to the late Percy and LaRue Blanton and came to this area in 1989 from Maine.&nbsp; He served our country [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":109297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109298,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109296\/revisions\/109298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}