Biography/History

David J. Blanchard, an Edgerton, Wisconsin attorney and Republican assemblyman (1954-1962) from Rock County's second district, was born 5 January 1921 at Edgerton. The son of George W.^[1] and Helen (Sherman) Blanchard, he was educated in the Edgerton public schools and received a B.A. degree in 1942 and an LL.B.degree in 1943 from the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of bar associations, a 32nd degree Mason, and an active conservationist. Blanchard was elected to the Assembly in 1954 on his first try for public office and reelected in 1956, 1958, 1960, and 1962. As an assemblyman he served on a variety of committees, as chairman of the Assembly State Affairs and Rules committees, and as a member of the Board on Government Operations. Blanchard was Republican floor leader of the Assembly in 1959, and Speaker of the Assembly from 1960 until his death. In the 1961-1962 session Blanchard was chairman of the Joint Legislative Council; in 1960 he was chairman of the platform committee of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Afflicted with a congenital kidney ailment, Blanchard was forced to use a wheelchair during the last years of his life. He died of this illness on 23 December 1962, survived by his wife, Carolyn (Jensen) Blanchard, whom he had married on 29 September 1943. They had no children. In a special election held in April 1963, Carolyn Blanchard was elected to fill her husband's seat in the Assembly. She was reelected in every succeeding election until 1970 when she lost to Democrat Janet Soergel Mielke.

George W. Blanchard (1884-1964) was an Edgerton lawyer, city clerk and city attorney, 1913-1931; a Wisconsin assemblyman, 1925-1926 and senator, 1927-1933; and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1933-1935. See Whitewater Mss BA.