Dave Blenkhorn (left) with his biological father Lyle Carsten (right). Photo courtesy of Dave Blenkhorn.
By Stephanie Nguyen
Dave Blenkhorn is a utility worker at Fountain Valley High School. Working from early morning until around three in the afternoon, his daily rotation of work includes (but isn’t limited to) setting up events, cleaning up litter after lunch time and making sure the benches and chairs around the Bowl are in pristine condition. He’s been working for the school district since 2006 but has been at Fountain Valley High since 2021. What most people don’t know is that he was an adopted child.
“I was adopted back in March of 1962,” Blenkhorn said. “When my parents got together it was sometime during 1961, and they were both living in Spokane, Washington at the time.”
Not long after, his mother moved to Sacramento, California, only to find out she was pregnant with a child out of wedlock. Blenkhorn said she was young and didn’t have the resources to raise him, so once she gave birth at the hospital, she made arrangements for his adoption. And no one knew.
“I say, ‘bless her heart,’ you know, she gave me life. She didn’t turn me into a statistic. She was brave and I know she remained a strong woman,” Blenkhorn said.
But she did make one request, and that was for his adoptive father to be a minister.
“My dad, who adopted me, he was a minister of a Protestant church,” Blenkhorn said. “He was a sweetheart of a gentleman. He wasn’t loud or obnoxious, and was never verbally or physically abusive. He was the strong, silent type. He was, I would say, a gentleman who taught me how to be a gentleman. I learned how to have respect towards other people through his example.”
It wasn’t as simple with Blenkhorn’s adoptive mother. Mr. Blenkhorn was married twice, losing his first wife to pancreatic cancer in the 1970s.
“It’s one of those things, the circle of life. Back in the early 1970s they probably didn’t have as much medical knowledge as they do these days,” Blenkhorn said. “Later on the Lord brought Genevieve into his life, and so he remarried.”
But the house didn’t feel empty.
“I’m sure one of me was [a] handful enough. If anything got broken, they know who did it, you know?” he joked.
He described his upbringing as secure, saying “life was good” in the 60s and 70s. Eventually he would graduate in 1980.
“You should have seen the hairstyles back then,” he laughs.
Nonetheless, he was grateful. “I was very fortunate to have a wonderful and a loving family, so I count my blessings every day.”
It wasn’t until he was 21 that he found out he was adopted. When his wife heard it in 2020, she suggested recontacting his father, whose name and location was written on the back of a 3×5 card that went with Blenkhorn when he was surrendered.
“She was able to bring up a phone list of the local area up in Spokane, Washington and see how many Lyle Carstens there were in the phone book,” Blenkhorn said. “She started at the top of the list and worked her way down.
A few days later, she was able to reach him. Upon hearing that he had another son, the two got together on Valentine’s day that same year in Yuma, Arizona. Visiting for one week, one of the places they stopped by was an Applebee’s.
“I was just on cloud nine. I was happy to [to get] a chance to meet him, shake hands and share a meal. We were able to sit down with his brother in law and his wife,” Blenkhorn said. “We started talking and it was as if we’ve known each other all of our lives.”
Upon meeting Carsten, he was reminded of a very famous individual.
“He reminds me of the old Hollywood movie star Mickey Rooney. As far as I’m concerned, he’s another Mickey Rooney, very engaging, very open, very pleasant to be around,” Blenkhorn said.
And he learned quite a few things about him.
“I was curious what it was like for him to serve in the Navy back in the 1950s, so I asked what he did. He was on a radio ship listening to the conversations of other countries,” Blenkhorn said. “It was a wonderful meeting just getting to know each other and talking [about] life, fun experiences in the past, and you know, introducing myself to him.”
Two years later in the middle of May, he reconnected with his biological mother, Diane, in Sacramento. She married during the 1970s and had two daughters and a son living in their hometown and Spokane, Washington. One of the highlights of their week together was their visit to the California State Railroad Museum in Old Town Sacramento. There weren’t any hard feelings all around.
“I’m glad I get to have a second chance,” Blenkhorn said.
