July 4, 1943 – September 16, 2023
Mark Wray Blackburn, 80, of Garland, Texas, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 16, 2023.
Born on the Fourth of July in 1943, Mark had a lifelong love of America. He loved fireworks, Diet Rite, and well-told ghost stories. He had a strong faith in Jesus and a love for his family that seemed to grow bigger every day.Â
Mark was born in New Castle, Indiana, to Eva and Roy Blackburn. After graduating high school, he became an evangelist. It was during a tent meeting in Indianapolis where Mark was preaching that he first fell in love with his wife, Elizabeth Blackburn (née Winters). She sang a 30-minute radio show every Saturday in the summer after she graduated high school with The Winters Sisters, and he heard her on the radio. He called to invite the sisters to sing in the meeting, and they accepted. To hear Elizabeth tell it, Mark’s incredible blue eyes won her over. To hear Mark tell it, he asked the ladies which one of them would be lucky enough to be his wife, and Elizabeth volunteered. September 3, 2023, marked 57 years of marriage.
Mark continued preaching for several years and continued to do speaking engagements even after he started working. He moved to Texas in 1981 to pursue job offers with better opportunities. He worked in technical support, which was no surprise to those who knew him.
His hobbies were genealogy, computers, and gadgets, and his greatest love was his family. They will miss him terribly.
Mark is survived by his loving wife Elizabeth Blackburn; daughter April Walker and her husband Sheldon; daughter Jill Larson and her husband Chris; grandchildren Aaron Walker, Sydni Ellis and her husband Nick, Austin Walker and his wife Mikayla, Summer Walker, Savanna Walker, Alex Walker, Andrew Townsend, Donovan Townsend, and Seth Townsend; great-grandchildren Logan, Liam, and Luca Ellis and Josie and Selah Walker; and several family members in southern Indiana.
The burial for Mark will be on Monday, October 9, at 11 a.m., at the Hilltop Pentecostal Church, located at 3013 Avoca Eureka Road in Bedford, Indiana. The family will then gather with friends and family at the fellowship hall across the street from Oolitic Trinity Pentecostal Church, located at 231 Lafayette Avenue, in Oolitic, Indiana.Â
