Blanche P. Southard

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Blanche P. Southard 

The Junipers

Blanche P. Southard lived on the Junipers estate for almost 30 years (circa early 1950s to late1970s), the first two decades as George H. Southard III’s wife and much of the following decade as his widow. She is controversial because there is a large living memory of her by neighbors and Hall-family descendants and they have differing opinions of her. Some accounts are disparaging in that she was somewhat disagreeable at times, but others are more complimentary. One of the latter has Blanche as a kindly woman who kept chickens and sheep (the latter entered into Westport Fair competitions), while another knows her as a benefactor who paid off fisherman debts at the local Point store and tutored local children. One thing is for sure: On her watch the Junipers estate house met its demise. Vandalism took place, porches disappeared, and in 1988 the big house burned to the ground. She eventually sold the estate in 1995 for $2.15 million to its current owner, who has placed a conservation easement on the property.

By the time the house burned down Blanche had left the property. She apparently returned to Washington DC in the late 1970s to stay with relatives but that did not work out for her. In the late 1980s she reportedly was back in the area living in a motel on Route 6 in Westport/Dartmouth. However, she eventually was able to buy a house on Merrymount Drive in North Dartmouth, where she was living at the time of her death in 1999, according to her obit in the Standard Times.