Walter blanding biography

American poet and artist (–)

Donald Benson Blanding (November 7, –June 9, ) was an American poet, sometimes described as the "poet laureate of Hawaii." He was also a journalist, cartoonist, author and speaker.

Early life

Blanding was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.^[1] His father Hugh Ross Blanding was a judge^[2] and first commissioner for Indian Affairs, and his mother, Ida Kimble,^[3] helped found the Enid Public Library.^[4] Participating in the Cherokee Strip Land Run,^[2] his family moved to Enid,^[5] and then Lawton where he grew up alongside Lucille "Billie" Cassin (later known as Joan Crawford), later assisting her after she cut her foot on a broken milk bottle.^[6] Blanding would later make this incident the focus of a poem he wrote when the two met years later.^[7][8] He graduated from Lawton High School in ^[9] He trained between and at the Art Institute of Ch