J. M. Blaska

The Capital Times
May 27, 1957

John Blaska, Farm Leader,
Dies At 72

John M. Blaska, 72, Route 2, Marshall, prominent farm owner and tobacco buyer, who was Democratic assemblyman from 1948 to 1950 and chairman of the Town of Sun Prairie from 1929 to 1949, died Sunday night in a Madison hospital. He had been ill since October.
Mr. Blaska was chairman of the highway committee of the Dane County Board for the last 10 years of this Board membership.

    He was past president and a director of the Dairyland Co-operative at Juneau, president of the Bristol Town Mutual Insurance Co., and active in the Farm Bureau. He was area tobacco buyer for P. Lorillard and Co., and sales representative for the Pioneer Seed Co.
    Mr. Blaska was a member of Sacred Hearts Catholic Church, Sun Prairie, and of the Catholic Order of Foresters.
    He was born in Jefferson County, near Waterloo, in 1885.
   He is survived by his wife, the former Rose Schuster of Marshall; four sons, Cyril J. Blaska, Oconomowoc; Jerome L., Sun Prairie; Gregory, Route 2 Marshall, and John L., Columbus; five daughters, Mrs. Franklin Wood, 427 W. Main St., Madison; Mrs. Evelyn Owens, Sun Prairie, supervisor of the Wisconsin State School for Girls, Oregon; Lila Blaska, Chateau Roux, France, an instructor in the U.S. Air Force; Burdette Blaska, a lieutenant commander in the Navy serving at the Naval Hospital at St. Albans, N.Y., and Juanita Blaska, S.P.S. Army clerk typist at Ft. Mason, Calif.; six sisters, Sr. M. Alcantra, St. Mary's Ringling Hospital, Baraboo; Mrs. Anna Fisher, Mrs. Louise Dalton, Mrs. William Ostrowsky, and Mrs. Alva Liebert, all of Madison, and Mrs. Ben Blaschka, Sun Prairie, and 14 grandchildren.
    The body is at the Tuschen Funeral Home, Sun Prairie, and friends may call after noon Tuesday and until time of services. The rosary will be recited by Sacred Hearts parish and by the Catholic Order of Foresters in the funeral home Tuesday night at 8.
   Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 9:20 a.m. in the funeral home, and at 10 in Sacred Hearts Church. The Rev. H. A. Waldkirch will officiate, and burial will be in the church cemetery.

Wisconsin State Journal
1957

John M. Blaska

    It could be said of John Blaska that he lived a full life.
    He was a busy farmer and a successful one.
    He served for 20 years on the county board, much of that time as the chairman of its highway committee.
    He was elected for a term to the Wisconsin assembly from eastern Dane county.
    He brought up a family of four sons and five daughters, who in the American tradition are following many callings in scattered corners of the globe.
    Life was not all profit or sunshine for John Blaska.
    Eight years ago the voters turned him down for another term as chairman of the town of Sun Prairie, the post which kept him in his loved county board position. The following summer a young newcomer to Dane county politics defeated him in the Democratic primary for a second term.
    Blaska was hurt, but not crushed. He worked harder than ever on the farm. He stepped up his interest in tobacco growing and marketing. He continued work in the county Democratic organization. And he had no apologies for his defeats.
    John Blaska was a fighter and a worker, and he will be remembered fondly by many who disagreed with him vigorously in the past.

John M. Blaska

IN PUBLIC affairs, in farm, church and community activities, the name Blaska in one of the most distinguished in this area.
   The man who gave it its prominence died Sunday. He was John M. Blaska, who for many years operated a farm near Marshall.
    It would be difficult to say whether John Blaska was better known for his activity in public affairs or as a farm leader. For 20 years he was chairman of the Town of Sun Prairie. For 10 years of that period he was chairman of the Highway Committee of the Dane County Board. In 1948 he was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly where he made an outstanding record in the one term he served.
    As a farm leader, he was known statewide. He served as president and a director of the Dairyland Co-operative at Juneau, an outstanding dairy farmer co-op. He was active in the Farm Bureau, but he never allowed the policies of the top leadership to sway him from his progressive views on farm problems.
    Mr. Blaska leaves behind him a family of outstanding citizens, who carry on in the tradition he established. He was proud of them, as they are of him.
    The sympathy of this area, where Mr. Blaska was so well known, goes out to them.

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