Alice Perthenia Black Millan, 97, passed away July 7, 2022, at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
She was born Nov. 21, 1924, at Kline and was the daughter of the late Walter W. Black and Olena Dahmer Black.
Mrs. Millan graduated from Franklin High School in 1943 and later from Potomac State College. She was a lab technician and worked in Veteran Hospitals in Wise, Virginia, and Clarksburg. After moving to the Maryland area, she worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital and National Institutes of Health, where she was an expert in the field of apheresis. She traveled to many places, including England, to train other technicians in the field and received numerous awards for her work in the medical field.
She was an expert seamstress and enjoyed making all her clothes and even shirts and dress coats for her sons. She loved to travel and traveled to many places with her husband, Jack, and after his death, she bought a motor home and traveled extensively with friends and family all over the United States, Canada and Mexico and in later years traveled with The Leisure Club in Rockville, Maryland.
She was a friend to many and befriended many young people when they came to Walter Reed and NIH to work and had several who lived with her throughout the years.
She loved her family, loved to spend time with them and was always proud and supportive of all their accomplishments. She enjoyed and loved many animals and adored her two wire haired terriers, Tammy and Cid, that were also her traveling companions.
She was twice married, first to Leonard Douglas Blankenship and then to Terrance Jack Millan, both deceased.
Surviving are a son, Micheal Vernon Blankenship and wife, Nancy of Franklin; a daughter-in-law, Loretta Blankenship of Upper Tract; a son-in-law, Fred Shaner of Annapolis, Maryland; four grandsons, Mick Blankenship and wife, Teresa, and Nevin Blankenship and wife, Vickie, all of Harrisonburg, Virginia, Aaron Blankenship and fiancé, Tracey of Clermont, Florida, and Andrew Shaner of Rockville, Maryland; and three great-grandchildren, Jerica, Alexis and Jathan Blankenship of Harrisonburg, Virginia.
She was also preceded in death by two sisters, Cornelia Black and Sylvia Jefferies; a brother, Vernon Black; a son, Larry Douglas Blankenship; and a daughter, Patricia Blankenship.
Funeral services will be private. She will be cremated and her ashes placed with those of her late husband, Jack, at the Culpeper National Cemetery in Culpeper, Virginia.
Online condolences and memories may be shared at www.kimblefuneralhome.com.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Kimble Funeral Home in Franklin.
