Evelyn Gertrude Blaisdell Doudna

Memorial services for Evelyn Gertrude Blaisdell Doudna, 96, Baldwin City, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Baldwin City. Private family inurnment will be in Oakwood Cemetery in Baldwin City.Mrs. Doudna died Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at her home.She was born Aug. 18, 1911, in Pittsburgh, the daughter of Genevieve Loesser and Freeman Thornton Blaisdell. She attended Wilkinsburg (Pa.) Public High School, where she played on the women’s basketball team and graduated in 1929. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1933. She lived in Pleasant Unity, Pa., Scottsdale, Pa., and Baldwin City, where she resided at Vintage Park for the past five years.Mrs. Doudna worked as a social worker for the Family Society Agency from 1933 to 1942. She was a homemaker and helpmate in her husband’s ministry. She and her husband ministered at the First Methodist Church in Scottsdale, Pa., for five years. She worked part time at the Interboard Council of Churches and the Baker University Library. She was active in church and civic organizations and served multiple terms as president of the American Association of University Women, Women’s Christian Service Society, PEO and Baldwin City Book Club. She was also a member of First United Methodist Church in Baldwin City. She enjoyed cooking, gardening, reading, entertaining and travel. She and her husband traveled throughout Europe and to Egypt, Alaska, China and Russia.She married John Charles Doudna on Dec. 26, 1939, in Wilkinsburg, Pa. He survives, of the home.Other survivors include a son, Roger, Findhorn, Scotland; a daughter, Christine, New York; a son-in-law, Richard Grand-Jean, New York; and two grandchildren, Molly and Michael.Mrs. Doudna was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Clarence Blaisdell.The family suggests memorials to Baker University or First United Methodist Church, sent in care of Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, P.O. Box 64, Baldwin City, KS 66006.