Posted on 08/12/2010 9:07:23 PM PDT by South40
RAMONA — Eighth-grader Cassidy Blankenbaker always knew her grandmother was selfless.
Now she can add brave and heroic to the list of loving attributes to remember her by.
Sharrel Blankenbaker, 63, sacrificed her life last week when she stood up to an armed kidnapper who was pulling Cassidy into his truck at an Amarillo, Texas, gas station.
The gunman fired a shot, striking the grandmother in the lung.
The distraction was enough for 12-year-old Cassidy to escape his strong grip, but her grandma died shortly after from the gunshot wound.
“I think she’d have done that for anyone,” Cassidy recalled Thursday from her Ramona home. “She was just that kind of person.”
Cassidy, a student at Olive Peirce Middle School, had just flown into Amarillo on Aug. 3 along with her 16-year-old brother, Dylan. They were there for their annual summer visit with grandma, who ran a paint contractor business with her husband of 25 years, Dale.
They were looking forward to gardening and getting another taste of grandma’s fried chicken, “the best chicken in the world,” Cassidy said.
Their grandmother picked them up from the airport, with their 5-year-old cousin in tow, and the foursome eventually headed to their grandparents’ home in Felt, Okla., two hours away.
First, they stopped at a Love’s truckstop and store for drinks and a bathroom break. It was when they were walking back to their car that an overweight man in a cowboy hat and boots jumped out of his pickup and latched onto Cassidy’s wrist.
“He pointed a gun at me and told me, ‘Get in my truck.’ My grandma wouldn’t let him,” Cassidy said.
Her grandmother got in between them, yelling at the man to get away.
“He shot her, and I had gotten my arm loose from him. And I started running away, but he chased me,” Cassidy said.
Her brother, who had already carried his younger cousin to safety, came back for Cassidy. They ducked behind the counter of the gas station.
Then another man came in, frantically looking for his daughter.
The kidnapper had her. He had forced her into his pickup as she was walking along the road with a friend.
After relaying a description of the truck to 911, Potter County sheriff’s deputies pulled over Gary Don Carner, 58, who died in an exchange of gunfire. His 11-year-old captive was able to flee from the pickup and jump into a ditch.
Earlier that night, Carner had failed in attempts to kidnap two women.
On Saturday, Cassidy spoke at her grandmother’s funeral in Oklahoma. She ended the eulogy with a memory of a storm that hit right after the shooting, and a brilliant double rainbow that appeared in the sky.
“I said, ‘Whenever you see a rainbow, think of my grandma,’ ” she said.
Blankenbaker also leaves behind three sons and eight grandchildren.
“I think my grandma is the greatest person in the world. It didn’t surprise me that she did that, but I’m really grateful she did.”
Indeed she was. It's a shame such a wonderful woman had to leave this earth so young and in such a violent manner.
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