Blanche Irene McDaniel Irving

Background

Blanche Irene was born on the 7th of May, 1904 in Cameron, Missouri, United States. She was the daughter of William Tillman and Florence Irene Davis McDaniel.

Education

Blanche Irving attended Maryville College and the Academy of the Sacred Heart (now Maryville University of St. Louis) in 1923. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1956 from the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University).

Career

Blanche Irving launched her career, working as a teacher at the Fountain School in Cameron, Missouri, Court Junior High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1947, and Lucero School, where she served from 1949 to 1964. In addition, she was a frequent lecturer to teachers throughout New Mexico on the unique influence poetry has on children.

Blanche began to write professionally in 1940. Her first book, So Long, written in 1959, was followed by Of Men and Shadows in 1974, Chapbook: A Coffee Can and a Hunk of Dohe in 1982, and Five Deer on Loco Mountain Road: People and Places on the Northern Edge of the Gila Wilderness in 1982. Also, she contributed numerous articles and poems to education journals, popular magazines, including New Mexico, Living Wilderness, Nature's, and Kansas, and newspapers, including the Kansas City Star.

Besides, Blanche McDaniel was the owner of the Crooked Hacienda Press.

Achievements

• Blanche Irving was particularly known as an outstanding educator, as well as a notable author of books and articles. She received the first prize for poetry from the Kansas Authors Club for Night Plowman in 1940 and second prizes for her stories Wind That Blows in 1941 and Lift up Your Head, Son in 1942.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Five Deer on Loco Mountain Road: People and Places on the Northern Edge of the Gila Wilderness 1982

Membership

Blanche Irving was a member of New Mexico Press Women, the Kansas Authors Association, and the Rio Grande Writers Club.

• state president

  Kansas Authors Association , United States

  1945 - 1946

Connections

Blanche Irene was married to Robert Kenneth Irving. They had two children, Kenneth P. and Roberta Josephine Irving Boykin.

Father:

William Tillman McDaniel

(1876–1957)

Mother:

Florence Irene Davis McDaniel

(1873–1944)

Late Husband:

Robert Kenneth Irving

(1894–1967)

Sister:

Madge Lorraine McDaniel Cloughley

(1897–1998)

Sister:

Gladys Leota McDaniel Nelson

(1899–1968)

Brother:

Alexander Dow McDaniel

(1901–1976)

Brother:

Dean Chester McDaniel

(1906–1963)

Sister:

Anna Dell McDaniel Wilson

(1908–1980)

Brother:

Paul Tillman McDaniel

(1910–1954)

Brother:

Carl Edward McDaniel

(1912–1968)

Brother:

Eugene Field McDaniel

(1915–1975)

Son:

Kenneth P. Irving

(1926–1945)

Daughter:

Roberta Josephine Irving Boykin

(1934–1992)