This page is under constructionPhoto page for James Louis Blilie, my father
Pictures of him and taken by him
All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 2010, All rights reserved
For family members: If you want copies of these scans, please contact me.
This page is under construction
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Family |
Air Force |
Various |
Link to Quite by Chance, my Dad's memoir of his time in the Air Force and US Army Air Force (140MB, large file)
The photos indexed on this page are ones of or taken by my father, James L. Blilie (16-Nov-1923 to
26-Mar-2010). He was always interested in art and did a lot of it: Drawing, painting, and photography.
He must have started into photography in the late 1940s, buying an Argus C3 camera. Later,when
he traveled to Japan and Germany, he bought better cameras: Canon and Leica rangefinders with
various interchangeable lenses and a 6-cm (120/220) Rolleiflex. He did some excellent work and
it's interesting to see his technique and composition improve through time.
These are all scans of slides, prints, and negatives. Some of the originals are quite damaged. Most of
the scans required some restoration in Photoshop. I'm not sure what materials he was using. When
he used Kodachrome, the colors are still well preserved. On other materials, the color has nearly
faded out completely. Here are a couple of examples (click on the thumbnails):
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Un-restored
This is typical of the slide films that are not Kodachrome. |
Restored by color restoration and various other techniques to bring something of the original image back |
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Un-restored |
Restored by color restoration and various other techniques to bring something of the original image back |
In addition, many of the slides from the 1940s and early 1950s were severely damaged by humidity
when he stored them in Florida in the late 1950s. You can clearly see large discolored blotches and
fungal growth on them. These are just too much work to correct. I present them more or less as
scanned, for record purposes.
My Dad had a very long and interesting life. I think he felt himself very lucky. He traveled many parts
of the world, mainly with the Air Force and, later, in the 1970s when Sperry-UNIVAC sent him
often to Europe and other places to support computer installations and start-up. You can think of
his life in four main periods, in my opinion: Youth from birth until he was inducted into the US Army
Air Force in 1944 at age 21. The period in the Air Force, from when he was inducted through being
called up again in the early 1950s through 1958, when he met and married my Mom. Then the period
of raising a family with my Mom: In California, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Then his retirement
from 1986 through 2010. He was lucky to have, in my opinion, about 16 or 18 really good years of
retirement when he had his mental capabilities, before dementia took him away from us in the 2000s.
This is more than most people get.
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James Louis Blilie, 86, passed away the night of 26-Mar-2010. He is survived by his wife of 51 years,
Harriet (Ventress) Blilie and three sons, Charles (wife Shelley and daughter Kirsten), James (wife Phyllis
and sons Joe and Jamie), and Jon (wife Bobbi and son Kai). He was a loving father and husband. He was
born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota where he graduated from Wilson High School, the grandson of
immigrants from Norway. He flew a full tour of 35 missions as a USAAF Lieutenant serving as navigator
and bombardier in B-24s over Germany and occupied France in late 1944 as part of the 8th Air Force
out of East Anglia, United Kingdom. He graduated in 1948 from the University of Minnesota with a degree
in electrical engineering. He served 21 years in the Air Force, serving in, among other places, Manila the
Philippines, Thule Greenland, Japan, and many bases in the USA. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from
the Air Force in 1969, before having another career with UNISYS (was Sperry Univac) as a computer
engineer and technical writer. He was a World War II veteran, Korean War veteran, and a Vietnam-Era
veteran. He was a talented painter, photographer, and writer. He also enjoyed amateur radio (HAM)
building his own radio sets, art, travel, literature, politics, and his family. He is sorely missed.
Visitation was held, 4pm – 7pm Tuesday 30-Mar-2010, at the Wulff Funeral Home 1485 White Bear Avenue,
St. Paul, MN 55106, 651-776-1555
Funeral services were held at 11:00 am, Wednesday 31-Mar-2010, at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 1616
W. Olive St., Stillwater, Minnesota, 651-439-5704, visitation was held for one hour prior to the service.
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From my cousin Jan Bendiksen in Sweden. Jan is the one that found all of our family information
in Norway and who made it possible for me to visit our cousins at Bliligaard. In fact, about a week
before I got to Bliligaard, I received a letter from Jan with the Narum's phone number:
In May 1988 I was in Minneapolis on a business trip. I knew from my mother that there was a chance of
finding distant relatives on the Haanes branch of our family in the Minneapolis area. The family name to
look for was Blilie. I was lucky, the first Blilie name I picked from the telephone directory was your father.
We met, and I was invited home to Jim and Harriet and had a wonderful time together with them. This was
the beginning of a period of exchanging information about relatives in both Norway and the US. Jim sent
me some interesting black and white photos, and I was able to trace the Blilie branch of your family in Norway.
We met once more in Minneapolis in 1995 and continued to keep in touch by mail for several years. I was
always looking forward to the family news letters from Jim. It now feels sad that there will be no more such
letters from him.
* * * * * * *
Click HERE for photos of my Dad's life. |
Click HERE for photos my Dad took during WWII bombing missions over Germany and Occupied France in late 1944 |
Click HERE for some of my Dad's photos from the late 1940s and very early 1950s |
Click HERE for photos of my Dad's time in Frankfurt in 1951 |
Click HERE for photos of my Dad's time in the Arctic in 1951 and 1952 |
Click HERE for photos of my Dad's time in Japan, 1952-53 |
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Click HERE for of my Dad's photos of Koea and the Philippines, 1952-53 |
Click HERE for photos of my Dad's time stationed at Moses Lake, Washington, 1953-54 |
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Click HERE for photos of my Dad's time stationed at Eglin AFB, Florida, 1955-58 |
Click HERE for photos of my Dad's trip to the Superior-Quetico Canoe Country, August 1949 |
Family
Air Force
Korea and the Philippines 1952-53
Various
Background image is family group photo, 50th wedding anniversary, July 2008, Stillwater, MN
Last updated: 3-Jan-2021
