Marvin Edds Blanks III

Marvin Edds Blanks III died on July 16, 2022, in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He was born on June 18, 1948, in Magnolia, Pike County, Mississippi, to Marvin Edds Blanks, Jr., and Juanita Simmons Blanks.

Services will be held Wednesday, July 20, 2022, from the First United Methodist Church in Philadelphia.

After graduating from Magnolia High School in 1966, he attended Mississippi State University, where he earned a B.S. in Finance and a master’s in business administration. While there he met his future wife, Mary Louise Nickle, from Hughes, Arkansas.

In 1973 Marvin and Mary Louise moved to Philadelphia where he’d been offered a job with Yates Construction, a small family company. He would never seek another job. 

By the time he retired in 2016, Yates had grown to become one of the largest construction firms in the country — significant growth and stability that have been attributed, in part, to Marvin’s efforts during that time, work he truly loved and to which he was intensely dedicated. Equally important to him were all of the wonderful people he met because he worked for Yates – so many that he loved, many with whom he was able to develop some of the most cherished relationships of his life.

As a member of the First United Methodist Church of Philadelphia, Marvin served on various lay committees throughout his life. Some of his fondest memories were from the nearly fifteen years he spent as the Sunday School teacher for the Senior High class (grades 9-12).

Marvin traveled to three different continents with Gideons International, an expression of his commitment to sharing the promise of salvation through Jesus, as written in the King James Bible, with anyone who was open to its message. He would distribute volumes in France, Portugal, Venezuela and Cameroon during his work with the Gideons. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America for most of his life, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout as a young man, and later becoming a leader of Boy Scout Troop #52 in Philadelphia. 

Eventually he made the journey to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico with his son Adam, also an Eagle, a treasured experience for both.

Marvin loved his family and is survived by his wife of 50 years, Mary Louise Nickle Blanks of Philadelphia; children, Margaret Elizabeth Blanks of Los Angeles, California, and John Adam Blanks of Loveland, Colorado; sister Wendell Lyn Blanks Miller of Osyka, and brother Thomas Simmons Blanks of Long Beach, and many in-laws, nieces and nephews (“Whoops!”) whom he very dearly loved.