Blanche Norma Joyce Pote was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Houston and Oyma Pote on January 2, 1923. She moved with her family to the Eastern Shore of Maryland at the age of five and attended elementary and high school there and college in the Washington DC area. She met her husband, Dr. Ralph Truitt, in Los Angeles, California, while in training to be a nurse at White Memorial Hospital. They were married on December 23, 1943 in Glendale, California.
Dr. Truitt’s World War II army service overseas and his subsequent medical specialty training assignments began a lifetime of world travel and exploration to four continents and all 50 states together and as a family. More than man made wonders, Mrs. Truitt appreciated the wonders of nature especially the ocean beaches.
Turlock was their permanent home base beginning in 1950. Home and family were the center of Mrs. Truitt’s life. Many will remember the warm hospitality of the Truitt home and garden. Her lifelong passion for learning and growing prepared her to train and teach parenting, marriage and communication skills in her church and during their five-year medical mission appointment in Bangkok, Thailand. Committed to physical fitness, she influenced many toward positive living in both her professional and private life. She was a lifelong member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
The tragic death of their youngest son, Mark, broadened her search for skills into a search for the spiritual meaning of life and death and for the return to purposeful living after a loss. As a volunteer, she established the first bereavement program at Emanuel Medical Center in 1980, and facilitated Grief Recovery support groups several times yearly through 2004.
Mrs. Truitt was honored by Soroptimist in 1989, as Stanislaus Senior Citizen in 1990, as Turlock Humanitarian in 1991 and as Emanuel Medical Center Good Samaritan in 1992. She was also designated as Hospice Volunteer of the Year several times, most recently in 2004. By those who knew her best she will be remembered as the heart of her family, a compassionate caregiver and faithful friend to many.
She is predeceased by her husband, Dr. Ralph Manolo Truitt in 2011, sons, Richard Craig Truitt in 2016 and Mark Steven Truitt in 1973.
She is survived by her daughters, Ardeth Jean Mattison and Barbara Joyce Holm and son-in-law, Edward B. Holm. Her grandchildren, Annie Truitt, Jon Mattison, Andrea (Donnie) Knecht, Mark (Sandy ) Mattison, Matthew (Kathryn) Holm, Christina (Chad) Stuart, and her great-grandchildren, Abigail Mattison, Rory Knecht, Brady Knecht, Micah Holm, Tyler Holm, Davis Holm, Dayton Stuart, Landon Stuart & Levi Stuart.
She is also survived by her brothers, William Houston Wainwright Pote and Phillip McKnett Pote
A memorial service will be held at 3pm on Saturday, March 25 at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 2400 N. Olive Ave in Turlock. Burial will be private at Lakewood Memorial Park.
Memorial contributions can be made to Covenant Care Hospice or Jessica’s House.
