Charles Blair

A memorial will be held for Charles "Buddy" Blair at Grimes Funeral Chapels, Kerrville, Texas on Friday, December 22, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. Reverend Frankie Enloe will be officiating.\r\n\r\nBuddy passed away Wednesday, December 13, 2017 at age 91 at a local care center. He was born in Loma Linda, California, November 23, 1926. He married Glenda Williams and they were married for 43 years.\r\n\r\nBuddy didn't start out to be a professional artist, although he loved to draw pictures from the time he was big enough to hold a pencil. His first love was music. He sang on his first radio show at age 14. At 15, he sort of "snuck" into the Navy which was in the middle of World War II. After an injury, he was given a medical discharge about a month before his 17th birthday. Buddy was not only a World War II Navy Veteran, but also a Merchant Marine.\r\n\r\nAfter the war Buddy sang with Big Bands in clubs along the Texas coast until 1956. He felt a need to go another direction and he landed a job in the Art Department of a large grocery chain. This began his new career as a newspaper artist for the Corpus Christi Caller Times.\r\nIn 1968, Buddy came to Kerrville as advertising manager at the Kerrville Daily Times. Buddy continued to expand his career and became a cartoonist, hand-carved sign maker, song writer, editor, columnist, photo1grapher and salesman. \r\n\r\nAs a traveling salesman he and Glenda journeyed all over the country working with various newspapers before retiring in the Hill Country. He fell in love with the area and considered Kerrville home. Glenda, Buddy's wife, was born in Kerrville and raised in Medina. He often said she is one of the reasons he loved the area so much.\r\n\r\nBuddy was preceded in death by his parents, Ray Ernest Blair and Laura Rachel Skinner Blair of Corpus Christi. He is survived by his wife Glenda.\r\n