Updated March 20:
Kathleen Blackburn, 71, died Monday, March 16, from lingering medical complications resulting from a car accident 34 years ago, said her husband, Bill Blackburn.
Mrs. Blackburn served on the Laguna Beach City Council from 1992 to 2000, and was instrumental in bringing the Montage resort to fruition and improving public access to Treasure Island and Goff beaches. “That was her proudest moment,” said Mr. Blackburn.
Mrs. Blackburn left her legacy in other ways as well, one of which was encouraging friends and colleagues to pursue leadership roles and acting as a mentor to other elected officials.
Mrs. Blackburn underwent a successful operation two months ago at Keck Medical Center at USC, her husband said, to address accumulating complications from previous injuries caused by the accident.
Since the accident, associated problems, including recurring infections, were compromising her health. “As time has gone on, she had to do something about it,” Mr. Blackburn said. “The operation was successful but she was so weak, it was hard to get well.”
The car accident occurred on ice-slick roads during a ski trip in Idaho and claimed the life of their 12-year-old daughter, Camron. The Blackburns had two children. Their son, David, died in 2007 from cancer at age 40.
The Blackburns established scholarship awards honoring Camron and David. The Camron Blackburn Memorial Scholarship at Laguna Beach High School honors a girl with outstanding academic and athletic ability with $4,000. A scholarship at Stanford University, where their son attended, is also awarded annually in their children’s names, providing four students with full tuition to the university.
Mrs. Blackburn worked to bring the Montage resort to Laguna Beach for 10 years, Mr. Blackburn said. “In my opinion, it was her most all-around successful accomplishment,” he said. “It was the thing she felt the proudest and the strongest about. They turned it into something that everybody can enjoy.”
Land used as a private trailer park was redeveloped with a top-end hotel, luxury homes and a public park. “It was a better use of land,” said Mr. Blackburn, “and the people developing it were sensitive to the environment. It may have created some traffic and parking issues but the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience. I know Kathleen felt the same way.”
While mayor, Mrs. Blackburn kept her office door open. “She never made up her mind until she heard the last argument for or against something,” said Mr. Blackburn. “She was very fair. She also had Monday Afternoon with the Mayor; anybody could come in and talk about anything.”
A private memorial service for family members will be held soon, Mr. Blackburn said. A community service is being planned to “celebrate Kathleen” in a couple of months, he said. “I want this to be her party and for people just to have fun,” he said. “We’re planning a celebration of life.”
The Blackburns built a Craftsman-style home in Three Arch Bay in South Laguna 40 years ago and lived there since. She was also involved with the PTA, the annexation of South Laguna, the predecessor to Mission Hospital Laguna Beach and preserving Laguna Canyon as open space. She was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley at 20 and was doing graduate work at a brain research institute at UCLA before marrying, said Mr. Blackburn, 72, who owned a manufacturing company for 40 years.
While an elected official, Mrs. Blackburn encouraged others to serve the city as Council members. Residents Paul Freeman and Cheryl Kinsman were among those who acted on her advice.
Freeman first met Mrs. Blackburn when he was hired in 1990 to negotiate the purchase of land in Laguna Canyon from the Irvine Company and campaign for passage of a tax measure to fund it. Mrs. Blackburn volunteered to walk precincts to encourage support.
When she decided to run for City Council two years later, Freeman ran her campaign. “I would have had to go out of my way to lose it,” said Freeman. “She was very popular.”
On her prompting, Freeman ran two years later and served two terms from 1994 to 2002, overlapping Blackburn’s tenure. “Kathleen was the only person who asked me to run for City Council,” he said. Among issues they tackled were emergency funding for the community clinic, affordable housing on Glenneyre Street and redevelopment of what became the Montage resort.
“She had a winning way with most everyone,” said Freeman. “Even people who didn’t like her politics had to admit she was a person of great diligence, intelligence and imagination, and she was always gracious and unfailingly civil in all of her dealings in this community.”
Mrs. Blackburn also influenced Kinsman’s decision to run for City Council. “She was very instrumental in my life,” said Kinsman, a Council member from 2000 to 2008. “There are not enough good things to say about her.”
Current Council member Steve Dicterow served an earlier term with Mrs. Blackburn. “I’ve never known anyone who could publically exhibit extreme courage as she did,” said Dicterow at Tuesday’s Council meeting. “She was physically fragile but she was mentally and spiritually invulnerable. She defined what it meant to be able to disagree in an agreeable way.”
Council member Kelly Boyd also recalled an earlier Council tenure with Mrs. Blackburn. “She would explain herself so precisely that how could you say no to her when she was done?” Boyd said Tuesday. “I’m going to miss her a lot.”
Mrs. Blackburn is survived by her husband, Bill; her daughter-in-law, Tiffany Blackburn Coyne; her three grandchildren, Lauren, 19, Evelyn, 17, and Danny, 15; her adopted daughter, Paula Vercelli; and her three sisters, Marolyn Peterson, Jacquolyn Sawyer and Gloria Cormier.
[…] Commission, including two terms as mayor, died March […]