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Crocheted Service Flags Her Hobby
Mrs. George Blinn Has Crocheted 99 Service Flags, 1 to 7 Stars, Recent Months.
The Red, White and Blue crocheted service flags that hang in many homes here are the handwork of Mrs. George Blinn of Glidden. The first one she made last August for her own window when Leonard, her youngest son, enlisted in the service. Then one after another she began making them and presenting them to her friends and acquaintances as their boys entered the armed forces. The flags here have as many as 4 stars on them.
Several weeks ago her picture and a little item concerning her "war work hobby" was in "The Des Moines Sunday Register." Since then Mrs. Blinn has learned what it means to get fan mail. The very next day letters began coming from all parts of the state, asking for instructions or that she make service flags for them. She has received almost one hundred communications. One a request for a flag with 7 stars. This she made immediately and sent, saying that crocheting that flag was a small thing to do for a mother with seven sons in the service of our country.
Mrs. Blinn takes time to answer all of her letters and tells them where they can secure instructions. But, if for some reason they cannot make the flags themselves, she tries to comply with their request.
Up to date she has made 60 flags for local homes and 39 flags for out of town people. A total of 99 flags honoring 156 men and women in uniform.
Times Herald, Carroll, Iowa, Tuesday, July 5, 1955
Glidden -- As if raising a family of 10 children and helping to take care of a large farm were not enough for one lifetimes, Mrs. Hattie Blinn of Glidden still keeps busy crocheting, embroidering, quiltin, sewing, gardening and keeping house.
Mrs. Blinn, who retired from the farm in 1934 and moved to Glidden with her husband, the late George Blinn, will be 80 years old in October. Alert and energetic as ever, she lives alone and does all of her housework besides finding time to do countless things for other people.
During World War II, Mrs. Blinn began crocheting red, white and blue service flags for the mothers of boys in military service. The first was for her own son, Leonard. When she had rolled up a total of 99, her project was written up in the Des Moines Register and as a result of publicity, requests came in from all over the United States. To date she has crocheted and given away a total of 120 of the little flags bearing a total of 185 stars. One woman in Little Rock, Iowa, requested a flag with seven stars. Three of the flags bore gold stars but the majority, she is thankful to say, contained stars of blue.
Service flags are only one of a long list of Mrs. Blinn's hobbies. She has made a total of 575 aprons for church bazaars, relative and friends. She had braided, crocheted and knitted over 500 rugs of various sizes and made 50 footstools of empty tin cans padded and covered with fabrics.
One of her most interesting projects is embrodering the names of little girls from 5 to 10 years of age on tea towels to encourage them in helping their mothers with the dishes. Each tea towel also has a hand-crocheted edge.
She has made crocheted edges for 200 pairs of pillow slips and 200 bath towels, has pieced 75 quilts and comforters, made 40 shoe bags, 35 clothes pin bags, 35 pincushions, and 50 hand-knitted dish cloths to mention only some of her projects. In the past two weeks she has crocheted edges around 50 handerkerchieves making a toal of 200 since she began keeping track.
Mrs. Blinn writes them all down in a little book in which she keeps all kinds of records of personal and family history.
Although there are not many wormen of the modern generation who do as much quilting, crocheting and knitting as Mrs. Blinn, she is by no means behind the times. Her pink and white kitchen with its electric washer and other up-to-date appliances is the last word in modernity.
Television is one of her favorite pastimes and Mrs. Blinn is an ardent wrestling fan, so much so that it has been her custom for the the past several years to entertain four or five of her friends at a television party in her home each Saturday evening to watch the wrestling bouts. On these occasions, Mrs. Blinn always serves party refreshments sometimes provided by herself and sometimes by others of the group.
....The members of Mrs. Blinn's numeroud family, like herself, are well known in the Glidden community. They include a stepson, Ray Blinn, who lives in Sioux City and nine sons and daughters of her own not counting one daughter who died at the age of 3. Among the nine are Mrs. Leon Haggard of Los Angeles, who unfortunately is very ill at the present time; Mrs. Jack Juergens, Carroll; Mrs. E.M. Waldron, Glidden; Everett and Ward Blinn, who live on farms near Glidden; Mrs. Merton Townsend, Omaha; Mrs. Leonard Schreck, Harlan; Mrs. Lee Gorman, Portland, Ore., who is presently visiting at home with her children, and Leonard, who lies in Glidden.
Mrs. Blinn and her husband had extensive land holdings in the Glidden area before their retirement. Mr. Blinn died in 1941 and the farms are now operated by other members of the family.
In their early days on the farm Mrs. Blinn milked cows, churned butter, baked bread and made practically everything her family wore. She remembers the days of oil lamps and coal-burning ranges. In her younger years she even helped in the fields, plowing corn behind teams of horses and doing chores by hand when there was very little farm machinery. She helped build the house on the home farm, she and hyer husband putting on the lath and rubbing down the woodwork themselves.
On the farm it was her custom to have a big garden and she still likes to grow flowers and vegetables. This year she put in her own garden and has raised many beautiful flowers, most of which she has given away to friends.
As might be expected from the mother of 10 children, Mrs. Blinn....
"The Glidden Graphic" Thursday, Nov. 4, 1965, page 4
MRS. BLINN NOTED 90TH BIRTHDAY
Mrs. Hattie Blinn noted her 90th birthday on Friday, Oct. 29. To celebrate the occasion a family dinner was enjoyed at the Carroll Country Club at noon.
Guests included the honored guest and her children: Mr. and Mrs. Ray Blinn of Sioux City; Mr. and Mrs. Merton Townsend of Omaha, Nebr.; Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Streck of Des Moines; Mr. and Mrs. Jack Juergens of Carroll; and Mr. and Mrs. Everett Blinn, Mr. and Mrs. Ward Blinn and Mr. and Mrs. Erwin Waldron, all of Glidden.
Mrs. Blinn and her late husband, George, are the parents of 10 children, eight of whom are still living. She has 21 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren.
Unable to attend the dinner were a son, Leonard of Glidden who was not there because of illness in the family, and a daughter, Mrs. Lee Gorman.
Mrs. Blinn has had many hobbies over the years, she crocheted service flags for all the families in town and she has sons in service. She has also done embroidering, quilt piecing, and made aprons, pin cushions, foot stools and shoe bags.
During recent years she has made many braided rugs. This past year she has braided over 200 rugs, many of which she has given away.
Twenty years ago, Mrs. Blinn celebrated her birthday by taking her first airplane ride with her son-in-law, E.M. Waldron. Up until about 5 years ago she was able to drive her car, a 1941 Chrysler, which she still yearns to do.
She is able to prepare her own meals and does some of her housework. Her recipe for a long life is to eat three good meals a day and keep busy. The Graphic extends congratulations to her.
Died in St. Anthony's Hospital, Carroll, IA (death cert)
Deaths, Funerals
Mrs. Hattie Blinn
Glidden -- Mrs. Hattie Elizabeth Blinn, 92, of Glidden died about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at St. Anthony Hospital in Carroll. She had been a resident of St. Anthony Nursing Home for some time.
Rites will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Methodist Church here, with the Rev. Dr. O.E. Cooley officiating. Burial will be in Westlawn Cemetery. The casket will be taken to the church at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday and will remain open until the hour of services. There will be a prayer service for the family at 10:30 a.m. at the Dahn-Woodhouse Funeral Homes in Glidden.
Mrs. Blinn was born Oct. 29, 1875, in Richland township, Carroll County, a daughter of David and Edith Everts. Her marriage to George O. Blinn took place in Glidden on March 3, 1897. She was a member of the Glidden Methodist Church.
Surviving are her children: Mrs. John (Grace) Juergens, Carroll; Mrs. E.M. (Mary) Waldron, Everett, Ward and Leonard Blinn, Glidden; Mrs. Merton (Dorothy) Townsend, Omaha; Mrs. Leonard (Mildred) Streck, Des Moines; and Mrs. Lee (Jean) Gorman, Mellbrae, Calif.; also a stepson, Ray Blinn, Sioux City, 21 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
Her husband died Feb. 14, 1941. Also preceding Mrs. Blinn in death were two daughters, Mrs. Leone (Alice) Haggard and Hazel Lucille Blinn.
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