Long time Whidbey Island resident Edna Ruby (Thomas) Blackwood, 97 years of age, was killed in an automobile accident on Oct. 14, 2015 at Dugualla Bay. 

Born on April 27, 1918, in Rudyard, Mich. her father, Clyde Eugene Thomas (1884), drove teams of horses for logging and her mother, Eva Mae Lougheed (1892), was the camp cook. 

Soon thereafter, Iron Mountain, Mich., became their home where, to this day, the Thomas family has remained homesteaded. After business college, while working in Milwaukee, Wis. and attending a church social event, she met her husband to be, Robert M. Blackwood, a career Naval dental officer, and married in 1940.

They traveled and lived throughout the world, coming to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in the mid 1950s. Of all these locations, Whidbey and the friends made in Oak Harbor were the very best. They thus settled in Oak Harbor becoming very active in the community and members of the United Methodist Church. 

Edna was a caring mother, an accomplished artist in Artists Northwest, avid gardener and president of Oak Harbor Garden Club, an involved member of the Oak Harbor Yacht Club ,and an avid square dancer and caller for the Downeast Westerners. 

She was one of the moms that was always a part of school associated activities or could be found at the end of the trail of long Boy Scout hikes with refreshments ready. 

She enjoyed needlework, reading and traveling all over the world.

She is survived by her three children Nancy Rebik, Thomas Blackwood and William Blackwood, along with their spouses and numerous grand children, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. 

A memorial service will be held in her memory at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30 at the First United Methodist Church, 1050 SE Ireland Street in Oak Harbor, WA.