Pennington, B. Blaine (Ben Blaine) (January 21, 1930)
Dates
- Existence: January 21, 1930
Biography
B. Blaine Pennington is an alumnus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City as well as a former reference librarian at the school. He was born January 21, 1930, in Moran, Kansas, and attended school in various Kansas towns throughout his early life. The “B” of his first name stands for Ben, a name used in his younger years and, as he mentions in his notes, a name he “detests”.
Upon graduation from high school in 1947, Pennington hopped a train to Kansas City, Missouri, where he found work in the transit department of Kansas City’s main bank, Commerce Trust. While working at the bank, he met a young man recently returned from the war, who peaked Pennington’s interest in the military, and he decided to join the Navy. During his tour of duty, he did much traveling, a passion that he would cultivate throughout the years to come.
Following his discharge from the Navy, Pennington returned to Kansas City and began working at the Colgate Palmolive Peet Company. He went on to work at several occupations in various states, including airline flight attendant, assistant personnel director, college counselor, reference librarian at UMKC, administrative assistant, professor, and eventually Library Director of the Mohave County Library in Kingman, Arizona.
In 1989 Pennington retired from library work and continues to travel throughout the world. He maintains a home on one acre of an eastern mountain slope in Kingman, Arizona, which he has named “Laughing Place”, a reference he derived from the banned literary classic, Tales of Uncle Remus.
