CYESTER, Blanche Emma Murchie

Blanche E. Cyester, a resident of Sierra Winds for eight years, passed away on the morning of January 3, 2004, just ten days short of her 97th birthday. She was born Blanche Emma Harrison, January 13, 1907, in Knox City, Rural Texas, to Emery Stanton Harrison and Emma Hutto Harrison. She was the oldest of five children, and was known to be handy with a six-shooter. Blanche worked for the California Adult Education System for 20 years as an arts and crafts teacher, and was a world traveler visiting her son and his wife, Gordon and Anita Murchie, veterans of the United States Foreign Service. Blanche is survived by two brothers, Stanton Harrison of Laguna Niguel, California, and John Oliver Harrison of Perris, California. One brother, Sidney Harrison, and one sister, Frances Bingham, predeceased Blanche. She married William A. Murchie in November, 1927, a dashing Scot who had survived World War I as a kilted member of the Canadian Black Watch, in San Diego, California. Their union produced two sons, William E. Murchie of California and Gordon W. Murchie of Virginia. Blanche remarried in 1962 to Millard E. Cyester, an administrator for Bechtel Corporation, who passed away in September of 1999 at Sierra Winds retirement community, Peoria, Arizona. Blanche is survived also by three grandchildren, Elizabeth Murchie Lightfoot of Escondido, California, Tia Murchie-Beyma of Alexandria, Virginia, and Scott Murchie of Kansas City, Missouri, and by two great grandchildren, Maddie and Megan Murchie-Beyma of Virginia. Published in the Arizona Republic on 1/7/2004.