Margaret M. Blackstone; Caltrans Retiree

Margaret Mary Blackstone of Ventura, a retired receptionist for the state Department of Transportation, died Thursday in a Ventura hospital after a brief illness. She was 94.

Blackstone was born Nov. 22, 1902, in Peoria, Ill.

“In her early years, she was a pianist,” said Blackstone’s son, William, of Ojai. “In those days, it was before ‘talkies.’ The Orpheum theaters hired people to play along with the movies in their circuit in Chicago. Orpheum was like the Warner Bros. of its day.

“She was quite accomplished. But she fell and broke her thumb and that ended that,” he said.

In 1934, she married Ventura native Joseph Blackstone and the couple returned to Ventura, where they started a family. Their daughter, Mary Jane Wallace, lives in Ventura.

Blackstone continued playing piano at the Kay Bauer Dance Studio in the Pierpont Boulevard area of Ventura.

Joseph Blackstone’s death in 1944 had a profound effect on his widow, said William Blackstone. “My father died when she was 42 and he was 44. Two weeks after his death, she went to work.”

His mother took a job at the Ventura maintenance office of the state Division of Highways, later Caltrans. “They had just bought a house for $7,500 and she had to pay it off. And they just bought a car. And she had to pay that off, too,” said her son.

“She put her nose to the grindstone and raised us children. We were her life.”

Blackstone retired in 1970 at the age of 68, but she didn’t slow down, her son said. She continued contributing her energy to Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ventura, which she had attended since its founding, and volunteered with the county hospital, putting in more than 8,000 hours.

“She was a person who had unbelievable genes” and she passed along to her family the importance of hard work, William Blackstone said.

“She was an absolute epitome of industry. And I learned dearly from it,” he said.

Mass will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Assumption Church. Interment will follow at Ivy Lawn Cemetery, Ventura.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Bonaventure High School, Ventura.

Arrangements are under the direction of Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home, Ventura.