Blanche (B) Eleanor Lebhar died peacefully in her sleep on May 19 at Vicar’s Landing in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., her residence since 1994 after 61 years of living in Westport, Conn. She was 93.

She was the eldest daughter of Capt. Haswell C. Herbert, American Expeditionary Force, attached to the famous Lafayette Escadrille squadron, and of the Paris-born Anaïs-MadeleineHaasé, both of Scarsdale, N.Y. B was raised there in the family home, Erin Lodge, named by her grandfather Arthur C. Herbert, head of the family and a scion of the ancient Anglo-Irish Herberts of Muckross, Killarney.

In 1933 the family moved to Westport at 99 Riverside avenue, a handsome Italianate Revival house sadly no longer extant, on the southwest corner of Lincoln street. B graduated from Staples High School, class of 1935, with a brilliant record both scholastic (she was valedictorian) and athletic (basketball and tennis which became her lifetime sport, lastly at the Country Club of Fairfield, Conn.), qualities that were no surprise to those who knew her then or a fterwards, her intelligence inparticular. She attended Vassar College, class of1939.  As for her looks, she and her two siblings soon became known in Westport as “the three beautiful Herbert sisters,” another lifelong quality of all three.

In March 1944 her high-school sweetheart and then husband, Thomas R. Finnegan, 1st Lieut., U.S. Army Air Force, gave his life for his country as a pilot in a B-25 Mitchell bomber raid over the Imperial Japanese Army bases on the north shore of New Guinea, an unsung but key part of World War II in the Pacific. He was 26, as was B. To support herself and her young son, B began what would become a successful career as a realtor in Westport, working with the formidable Ellen Rice Wiley.

In 1950 B married Dr. Neil F. Lebhar, a widower and Westport pediatrician, the son of Dr. Norman and Ada Gedney Lebhar of New York, and with the arrival of three more sons had a full-time career change to housewife and mother. But no matter how busy she was, B always managed to find time to help those who needed it inside and outside the family, with an ingrained sense of duty and no-fanfare Christian charity as befitted the unstuffy lady of the old school that she was.

Her great love of Martha’s Vineyard began with a 1948 vacation in a beach cottage on Chappaquiddick. Later she loved to stay at the Daggett House in Edgartown when it was a bed and breakfast run by Fred and Lucille Chirgwin, enjoying pleasure-filled days with Gordon Shurtleff aboard his classic, all-wood 1926 Gloucester-built catboat, which Dr. Neil eventually bought. Rechristened the Eleanor B, she became a cynosure for sailors’ eyes on Long Island Sound waters around Westport while providing many hours of enjoyment for family and guests. The last Vineyard venue was a small house which B and Neil had built near the top of Abel’s Hill in Chilmark, where they spent as much time as possible.

Predeceased by her two husbands and by her sister Mary (Babs) Patterson of Pompton Lakes, N.J., B is survived by her sons, Richard H. Finnegan, of New York, the Rt. Rev. Neil G. Lebhar and his wife Marcia of Jacksonville, Fla., Brett H. Lebhar and his wife Marilyn of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Clay G. Lebhar and his wife Natasha of Coral Springs, Fla. She is also survived by her sister Kathleen E. Todd of Westport, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren in whom she particularly delighted, as well as numerous nieces and nephews from three families and their offspring.

A funeral service will be held Saturday, June 11 at 2 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer (Anglican) in Jacksonville, Fla. 32216.

In lieu of flowers kindly make a memorial contribution in her name to your charity of choice or to the Church of the Redeemer (Anglican); Earthplace (The Nature Discovery Center), 10 Woodside Lane, P.O. Box 165, Westport, CT, 06881; or Christ & Holy Trinity Church, 75 Church Lane, Westport, CT, 06880.