Marion Samuel Blades
PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co A
ASN#33202956
Born 1912 in MD, Died 1977
Artist
County of residence at enlistment: Wicomico County, MD
Other residence(s): Salisbury, MD
United States Army, did not accompany the unit to Europe
Occupation before the war: decorators and window dressers
Marion was born on April 20, 1912 in Goodwill, Maryland.
In 1940, at the time of the census, he was living in Salisbury, Maryland with his parents. In 1942, he was still in Salisbury; his profession is listed as self-employed.
His enlistment record says he is "separated with dependents" and his profession is in the category of decorators and window dressers.
In 1953, he was living in Salisbury, Maryland, married to Olive M. and working as a painter.
By 1958, he listed his profession as interior decorator.
He was a member of the VFW and American Legion posts in Salisbury.
He died of a heart attack on February 5, 1977. He is described as a retired painter and paperhanger. At the time of his death, he was listed as divorced with a daughter whose name was unknown.
People were asked to contribute to the Marion S. Blades fund to establish a primitive exhibition in the old city hall museum in Salisbury.
He was a collector/accumulator of old objects. The "first of several" sales of his personal property a few months after his death describes a chock-full barn, and items including a loom, a flax wheel, a knee-high coal stove, a corn sheller, and a horse drawn hearse, along with trunks, furniture, and parts to things.
Another sale, a few months after the first, is advertised as "the best of Blades." It described an overwhelming profusion of items for auction including bottles, baskets, coins, tools, Maryland historical documents, Eastern Shore stoneware, guns, swords, powder horns, and an Edison victrola. (I wanted to go to this sale!)
A final sale was described as “the rest of Blades.”
Sources:
Draft card
https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&db=YMDraftCardsWWII&h=5848609
Enlistment record
Salisbury, Maryland city directory, 1953
https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&db=USDirectories&h=956618747
1958 newspaper article (describes his profession as interior decorator)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/292124830/?terms=marion%2Bs%2Bblades
Find a Grave death record (gravestone shows that he was a Tec 5 in US Army)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65805519
Obituary from Wilmington (Delaware) New Journal
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52025754/
Obituary from Salisbury (Maryland) Daily Times
https://www.newspapers.com/image/291634404/?terms=marion%2Bs%2Bblades
Personal Property Sale Advertised, May, 1977
https://www.newspapers.com/image/291641595/?terms=marion%2Bs%2Bblades
Personal Property Sale Advertised, August, 1977
https://www.newspapers.com/image/281777035/?terms=marion%2Bs%2Bblades