Blackmon Praised By Scout Associate

(Editors note: MSgt Jasper F. Blackmon, 37, Beckley, died Friday.  In July he was named the nation's outstanding guardsman by the Air Force Association.  Since coming to Beckley in 1951, he had been active in Boy Scout affairs.  Knowledge gained by close association in Scout work is evident in the tribute that follows.  This was written by Rex Johnson, district Boy Scout Executive, and is directed to Blackmon's surviving children.)
                          ---
   Dear Ann, Don and Ed,
   although the course of incidents of the past few days resulting in the untimely death of your Dad, Jasper F. Blackmon, all

 seem and and tragic at first glance, something more wonderful and magnanimous seems to emerge.  Whatever it is cannot be put into words, but this much is true --- Ann, you and Ed and Don should be the proudest kids in town!
   The rest of your lives you kids can hold your heads high.  Your dad was the most courageous, kindly, generous, outward giving in the service of mankind, vital, full of life, dynamic, uplifting man that has crossed the paths of many of his fiends and associates.
   He was the rare kind of man that uplifted every person with whom he came in contact and when he walked away somehow you felt better for meeting him.  He unquestionably lid to the full in his short span of 37 years and much more so than most men do in the customary three score and ten.  Every awake minute of his life was spent in the giving out of the warmth of his heart, mind, energy, labors, money and time to be the very best in anything he undertook.  Often time she would say, "I want to be the best ..." whatever it as.

   Kids, your father was many things to many people --- husband, son, father, Scoutmaster, district commissioner, Air National Guardsman, peanut salesman, sport enthusiast, neighbor, soldier, paratrooper, master sergeant and others I am not aware.  Kids, your dad often said he just want to be the best.  Well, as far as I am concerned in all these things he made it.  This is also the expressed opinions of literally hundreds of others who have known him.
   So, Ed, Ann and Don, hold your heads high.  Your are fine children indeed.  Your father wanted many things for you, among them was for you to finish school.
   Your dad set the example and pattern for the rest of your lives; live and be and do the best you know.  He did.
     Respectfully
     REX JOHNSON
     District Scout Exec.

(Beckley Post Herald and Register Sunday morning  October 27, 1957)

[Note the headline date of Oct 19  refers to the accident date, not the date of his death.]
(Raleigh Register afternoon November 5, 1957)

Cards of Thanks

WE, his family knew he was a great man.  It warms our hearts knowing so may people thought the same about him.  Our sincere thanks to everyone for their kindness and help during the untimely death of a very wonderful man, our husband and father, Jasper F. Blackmon.

Wife; Anne
Children: Ann, Don and Ed

(Raleigh Register afternoon November 14, 1957)

Colonel James  K, McLaughlin, chief of staff of the West Virginia Air National Guard, presents Mrs. Blackmon with a book honoring her late husband,  Jasper F. Blackmon who was named last summer as the Air National Guardsman of the Year.  at left is Major Ralph R. Cowgill, commander of the 130th Air Resupply Group, 
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Air Guard Honors late Sgt. Blackmon
   Ceremonies were held by members of the West Virginia Air National Guard in Charleston Sunday honoring the late Master Sergeant Jasper F. Blackmon, Beckley.
   Sergeant Blackmon, while a member of the 130th air Resupply Group at Kanawha Airport in Charleston, was selected last July as the Air National Guardsman of the Year for the Unite States.
   He was injured on Oct. 19, 1957 while attending a drill at Kanawha Airport and died in a Charleston hospital on Oct 25.   Colonel James  K, McLaughlin, chief of staff of the West Virginia Air National Guard, presented Mrs. Ann Blackmon with a book about her husband's selection and his trip to the Air Force Association convention in Washington in July.

   With Mrs. Blackmon were her three children, Dorothy, 18; Donald, 15; and Edward, 14.  They live in Beckley at 2307 S. Kanawha St.
   Over 400 members of the 130th Air Resupply Group  attended the ceremonies in the Air National Guard hangar.
   The book which was presented to Mrs. Blackmon contained letters from General Thomas D. White, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and from  John P., Henebry, chairman of the board of the Air Force Association.
  
(Raleigh Register afternoon January 23, 1958)