Blanche M. Thorson, 78, of Lathrop, MO, passed away February 25, 2007 at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cameron. The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. Saturday evening, March 3 at the Park Lawn Lathrop Chapel. Private inurnment will be in the Lathrop Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the Missouri Veterans Home in Cameron. Blanche was born March 4, 1928 in Slickville, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Louis and Ada (Tardini) Gabriel. She was preceded in death by her parents, an infant daughter, Jule Ann, and a brother, Robert Gabriel. Blanche served as a nurse in the U.S. Air Force, and was stationed in Korea, Japan, and in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband who was also serving in the Air Force. She later continued her profession as a registered nurse and worked as a school nurse at Lathrop. She was a member of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Plattsburg, the American Legion and the Lathrop B&PW Club. Survivors include her husband of 53 years, Norman, of the home; a daughter, Ruth Burge of Kansas City; a son and daughter-in-law, Eric and Lisa Thorson, Kansas City; a grandson, Enoc Burge, Kansas City; and three sisters, Albertina Yurko, Greensburg, PA, Rita Tripoli and her husband Dr. Charles Tripoli, Washington, PA, and Lucia Stinson and her husband Idus, Lavonia, GA. (Arrangements: Park Lawn Lathrop Chapel, 816-740-4658).

Blanche's sisters, Rita and Lucia, also graduated from the school of nursing at St. Francis.