Obituary: Leonora Turner

When Leonora Blackmore Turner worked for Merrill Lynch in 1921, she was the youngest saleswoman on Wall Street. She sold the first stock for the new grocery chain Safeway.

Mrs. Turner, 101, died Wednesday at Carson Health Care Center in Carson City.

She was born April 10, 1898, in Arlington, N.J., to Lawrence R. and Mary E. (King) Blackmore. She studied finance at the Wall Street branch of New York University before working for Merrill Lynch from 1921 to 1929.

In 1928, she married Richard Thorpe Turner, a trade commissioner for the United States Embassy in Peru. Like many others, she lost everything in the stock market crash the next year.

With her husband, she traveled much of the world, spending a great deal of her life in South America but also in several European countries. After her husband's retirement, the couple started a travel club, for which she was tour director. At the time of her 100th birthday celebration in Carson City, she had lived in 57 homes.

Mrs. Turner moved to Carson City in 1988 to be near her daughter, Virginia. She was active in P.E.O., the Christian Women's Club, the Natives and Newcomers Club and the Republican Party Club here.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1987. Mrs. Turner was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Carson City.

Survivors include her daughter; son Richard of West Palm Beach, Fla.; six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Walton's Chapel of the Valley and Walton's Sierra Crematory are in charge of arrangements. No services are planned.