Charlotte woman remembered for tenacity, decades of dedication to arts and music scene

Determined is a word that best describes Rosemary Dew Blanchard.

Whether reeling in a catch while deep sea fishing off the North Carolina shores or learning to ride horses at age 57, Blanchard would say: “It isn’t life that matters so much, it’s the courage you bring to it,” her son George Blanchard III told The Charlotte Observer.

A Virginia native and longtime Charlotte resident, Blanchard died Feb. 9 at age 99.

The eldest of four children, she was the first person in her family to go to college.

Blanchard was 16 when she started her studies at Roanoke College in Virginia, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry. In 1940, 3.8% of women had completed four years or more of college, according to Statista, a market and consumer data company.

“She always wanted to make a contribution to society,” her son said. “She was interested in the medical field and wanted to make a difference.”

A path to science and love

After graduating college, Blanchard was invited to work at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville on cutting-edge science research developing electroencephalogram device in the emerging field of brain wave studies. “The EEG was revolutionary at the time,” her son said.

Blanchard would spend nine years conducting lab research there, where in 1951, she earned a master’s degree in speech pathology. She also met her groom-to-be, George Blanchard Jr., who was studying to be a neurosurgeon.

A year later, they married.

From science to the symphony

In 1954, after their son was born, the Blanchards moved to a home in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood.

As George Blanchard Jr. set up his neurosurgeon practice, his bride’s focus turned from her career to making a difference in the community.

“She always put other people first,” George III said. Looking through family photos, he said he realized she was the one behind the camera, not in front of the camera.

While a stay-at-home mom for George III and her daughter Jane, born in 1956, Blanchard became committed to growing arts and culture in Charlotte, mostly working with the Charlotte Symphony for over 20 years.

She was not a musician but had a deep appreciation for the music, George III said. His father, who died in 1983, also loved music and played a little piano.

She served on the board of directors and president of the Symphony Women’s Association, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra board and as chairwoman of the search committee that brought Maestro Leo Dreihuys to Charlotte.

Driehuys, who died in 2019, arrived in Charlotte in 1977 from the Netherlands, leading a Charlotte Symphony of part-time musicians, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. When he retired in 1993, he had doubled the number of full-time musicians in the orchestra, led them on a European tour and was playing in a state-of-the-art uptown venue uptown he helped push for.

Blanchard involvement in the orchestra led to a meeting with First Lady Nancy Reagan at The White House in the 1980s and took her to Poland in the 1990s.

Blanchard also was a founding member of the North Carolina Association of Symphonies and The Charlotte Assembly social organization. She was involved in other local groups, too, including the Arts & Science Council, the Mint Museum Auxiliary and the Golden Circle Theatre.

“She inspired me to be involved in the arts myself,” said George III, who earned a drama degree in theater from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He also went on to earn a special education degree.

“She encouraged us to try, and always pointed you in the right direction,” he said.

‘Kind, fun and accomplished parents’

George said his mother put her family first, even sitting through a Jimi Hendrix concert in 1969 when his parents had to take his sister to the concert because he didn’t want to sit with her.

Blanchard loved roses of any color, the PBS television series “Downton Abbey” and of course, classical music. She was an impeccable dresser and great cook.

Family friend Margaret “Ducky” Calhoun Hemenway praised Blanchard’s chipped beef on toast for breakfast and red snapper caught at Litchfield Beach in South Carolina, on the Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service website. “Jane and George were blessed to have two kind, fun and accomplished parents who made their homes such joy-filled and inviting places,” she said.

Blanchard also loved her friends, who she would meet up with weekly when she was able to shop and dine out, said Patricia Tolbert, Blanchard’s caregiver of nine years.

“She was my employer, friend, mother. That’s how she treated me, and she loved all her friends.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2023 at 11:14 AM.