Marks - HILL BLALOCK, renowned soldier, poet, traveler, photographer, and loving family patriarch died the morning of March 13, 2008 of natural causes. Mr. Blalock was born in Jackson, TN, January 27, 1919 and raised in Memphis, TN and Littleton, CO. After attending his freshman year at the University of Colorado, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy by the President of the United States in July of 1937. Upon his 1941 graduation from West Point, he served as an infantry commander with the 11th Armored Division, 3rd U.S. Army in the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns of World War II. He was decorated twice for valor but was proudest of his combat Infantry body. After the war he held the dual positions of Commander, 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division and Headquarters Commandant for the International Military Tribunal in Nurnberg, Germany for which he received an official letter of commendation. Upon returning to the United States, he was posted to the Pentagon as Chief, European Section, Civil Affairs Division of the War Department, charged with recruiting senior U.S. executives to participate in the rebuilding of occupied Germany. Late in 1947 he resigned his commission as lieutenant colonel and moved to Marks, MS to work with his brother-in-law, William King Self, in a family-owned agri-business, Riverside Industries. He was past vice-president of Riverside Industries and Pacific Buildings, Inc., past chairman of Citizens Bank and Trust Company in Marks, a past president of the Marks Rotary Club and the Marks Chamber of Commerce, former Marks School Board member, and a vestryman and Sunday School teacher at St. George's Episcopal Church in Clarksdale, MS. He was predeceased by his wife, Miriam Self Blalock, and is survived by his two children, Marjorie Hill Blalock of Jackson, MS and Hill Blalock, Jr. of Marks and Oxford, MS. Visitation will be at the family home in Marks, Sunday, March 16, from 5-7 p.m. Funeral services will be held at St. George's Episcopal Church, Clarksdale, MS, Monday, March 17 at 10 a.m. with graveside services immediately following at Marks Cemetery. Kimbro Funeral Home 662-326-2881 (Published in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN on 3/15/2008.)