BLALOCK FAMILY GETS WILDLIFE SITE AS NAMESAKE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PEARBLOSSOM - A Los Angeles County wildlife sanctuary has been named for a longtime Antelope Valley family.

Blalock Wildlife Sanctuary honors Lorena Blalock Paul, a rancher who with her second husband started the Crystalaire country club, and her son, businessman Richard Blalock.

``I feel very honored they have done that. It's a very nice tribute to my grandmother and my dad,'' said John Blalock, Richard's son.

The wildlife sanctuary, previously unnamed, covers 140 acres east of Pearblossom off Valyermo Road. The property has been owned by Los Angeles County for years.

The naming was approved last week by a 5-0 vote of the Board of Supervisors on a motion by Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

The Blalocks have been wonderful citizens of the Antelope Valley, Antonovich aide Sherry Lasagna said.

Lorena Blalock was in her 80s when she died in the late 1970s. Richard Blalock died in 2000.

Lorena Blalock was a widowed Simi Valley rancher and mother of three in 1947 when she bought Big Rock Ranch and several smaller ranches totaling about 4,000 acres in the southeastern Antelope Valley.

After she was married again, she and her second husband, Cyril Paul, began planning a golfing community called Crystalaire on the land she owned. The name came from what she termed Antelope Valley's ``crystal air.''

Son Richard became a businessman, running the landmark Mr. B's restaurant in Lake Los Angeles, and he also was a musician and artist.

The Blalock family still runs the restaurant, now called Apple Annie's, and retains a controlling interest in the Crystalaire golf course.