Esther JoAnn Blackwell
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Esther JoAnn Blackwell, 64, of 318 W. Washington St., Carrier Mills, died 9:20 p.m. Thursday, June 3, 2010, at her residence.
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Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, 2010, at Felty Funeral Home in Carrier Mills with the Rev. Ronnie Williams officiating. Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery.
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She was born Nov. 24, 1945, in Carrier Mills to the late Archie and Opal (Rouse) Blackwell Sr.
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She was a member of the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Carrier Mills and attended the Apostolic Church of God in Harrisburg.
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She graduated Carrier Mills Grade School in 1960 and Carrier Mills High School in 1964. She later attended Southern Illinois University for two years.
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In the late 1960s she moved to Chicago, where she was employed at LaSalle National Bank as a teller. Upon her return to Southern Illinois she worked at Lawson Law Library and Morris Library at SIU-C. She continued working for the university at the Rainbow's End Child Development Center and the Newman Center.
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In 1992 she served on an implemental team for the Black Catholic Congress in New Orleans, La., where she spoke to an audience that included Pope John Paul II. The following year she won a scholarship to the Leadership Program at Xavier University in New Orleans, La.
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She is survived by a daughter, Traci Blackwell of Carrier Mills; a brother, Archie (Ann) Blackwell Jr. of Carrier Mills; two grandchildren, Andrew and Nia Sternberg of Carrier Mills; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
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She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister, Joyce Ann Blackwell; and a brother, Alton "Dubbie" Blackwell.