Allison Oursler Blankenship Gentry, age 91, of Jonesboro passed away on Saturday, August 15th at the Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House. She was born June 30, 1935, as an only child to William Connelly and Harriet Wall Oursler in Memphis, TN.

She grew up in Marianna, AR and graduated in 1953 from Marianna High School as co-valedictorian of her class. She proudly attended Vanderbilt University and became a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Unfortunately, she was unable to finish her degree after her father died unexpectedly, so she returned home to Marianna to run the family business, Oursler Parts, where she worked as the bookkeeper for many years.

In 1955, she married Bob Blankenship and became mother to their four children. In 1972, they moved to Jonesboro. She worked as secretary at Nettleton Methodist Church where she enjoyed teaching Sunday school, becoming involved with the United Methodist Women and co-leading the United Methodist Youth for many years. She later joined First United Methodist Church where she was president of the 4th Quarter meetings. When she wasn’t involved in the church, she was busy managing various apartment buildings around Jonesboro.

She became a widow in 1991 and later reconnected with a childhood friend Terry Gentry and they married in 1999.

She loved traveling especially to Europe and talked often about a memorable trip she took to Europe by ship as a senior in high school. She was fortunate enough to make more trips back to Europe in her later years. In her free time, she was an avid reader and especially loved reading John Grisham books.

She was preceded in death by her husbands and her daughter, Lynn Blankenship. She is survived by her son Bill Blankenship (Carrie) of Elkton MD, her daughters Robin Ring (Mike) of Oklahoma City, OK, and Allison Yancey (Rick) of Pennington, NJ; her grandchildren, Becky Ostroski (Jason), Jack Blankenship (Tessa), Michael Whittaker, Ashley Blankenship, and Sarah and Katie Yancey; and her great grandchildren Genevieve and Cameron Ostroski.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, August 27 at 2:00 in the chapel of the First United Methodist Church in Jonesboro with a short visitation in the atrium at 1:30. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Focus, Inc (focusinc.org under the About Us tab.)