Saturday, April 20, 2024 | St. Lawrence County, NY
CANTON -- Ruth Costa Blankman Barbour, community leader and one of the first female mayors in St. Lawrence County, has died at age 91. Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Barbour, formerly of State Street, …
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CANTON -- Ruth Costa Blankman Barbour, community leader and one of the first female mayors in St. Lawrence County, has died at age 91.
Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Barbour, formerly of State Street, are with the Lawrence Funeral Home, Canton.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, June 8 at 11 a.m. at the Lawrence Funeral Home in Canton, with calling hours on Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. Burial will follow in Fairview Cemetery, Canton.
The former Canton mayor died Tuesday at Maplewood Campus in Canton. She was predeceased by her two husbands, Edward J. Blankman and E. Frederick Barbour.
She was mayor of Canton from 1975 to 1980, and is among the first women mayors in St. Lawrence County. She is believed to have been the first female Canton village trustee when she was elected in 1974.
Ruth Blankman Barbour described her time as mayor as "one of the greatest adventures of my life. I enjoyed every minute of it," according to a booklet on local women in politics prepared in 1989 by the St. Lawrence County Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).
She was born June 17, 1921, in Scarsdale, the daughter of Pedro and Ethel Costa. After graduating Eastchester High School, she enrolled in the Class of 1943 at St. Lawrence University. In 1942, she married SLU Assistant Professor of English Edward J. Blankman. They settled in Canton after his wartime military service was completed.
She held numerous positions in the community over the years, aside from her political service, which included first president of the E. J. Noble Hospital Guild, later serving on the hospital board; an organizer and first president of the St. Lawrence Figure Skating Club; secretary of the Canton Chamber of Commerce; and a member of the League of Women Voters, the Citizens to Save the Adirondack Park, and the Unitarian-Universalist Church.
She worked for years at Barbour’s on Hodskin Street, and after Edward Blankman died in 1982, she married E. Frederick Barbour in 1984. He died in 2003.
Memorial contributions are suggested to: The Silas Wright House, E.J. Noble Hospital Guild or to The Unitarian Universalist Church.
Condolences may be sent by visiting www.lawrencefuneralhome.org.
The obituary announcement can be seen at http://northcountrynow.com/obituaries/ruth-costa-blankman-barbour-91-canton.
