Dale Blackwell Gasque retired after 32 years as an elementary school librarian in Vermont, and moved with her husband to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Drawing on forty years of riding, raising, and training horses in Maryland and Vermont, she is the author of Pony Trouble (Hyperion) and four middle grade novels in the Thoroughbred series (HarperCollins). This is her first blog.
Deborah Blackwell earned a BA in English Literature from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. During her career she worked at Saturday Night Live, PBS, Hearst Entertainment, and the William Morris Agency. Deborah developed Frontotemporal Degeneration during her tenure as an Executive Vice President in the Walt Disney Company. The last five years of her life were spent close to her sister Dale in Vermont and Virginia. Deborah died on January 31, 2014. She was 63 years old.
Unthinkable 
Dear Dale,
I found your blog while searching to learn something about Debbie’s whereabouts, and it has broken my heart. I knew Debbie in high school and at Brown. She was my brother Tom’s homecoming date one year in high school. Both Tom and I followed her career with admiration, but when she left Disney in 2007 the trail went cold. Not long ago, Tom asked me if there was anything about her in the Brown alumni directory. She used to have an entry, but when I saw that it had disappeared, I became fearful that something bad had happened. And so it has. I don’t know how one offers condolences for someone that is still alive, but you should know how Debbie has stayed on the minds of friends from decades ago. She was a truly great and accomplished person.
Sincerely,
Martin Murphy
mjm52251@yahoo.com
Thanks for writing, Martin. I think I have the photograph of Deborah and Tom dressed for homecoming. It’s nice to know she’s remembered by friends from long ago. And if it is any comfort, the one blessing of this disease is that my sister never realized anything was really wrong.
Good to hear from you. Dale
thank you for writing this..i came upon this accidentally and was instantly mesmerized. My sister is in the late stage of young onset alzheimers..she is 53 years old…i miss her and love her and miss her
Thanks for your comment. My heart goes out to you and your sister. It’s a terrible thing to watch someone you love deteriorate.
If you have a blog, will you send me the address?