Blanche was born in Arkansas. Her daughters said she was born in Chidester in Ouachita County; however; when she died, her husband said that she had been born in Fayetteville, Washington County. Her daughters also stated that her given name was Henrietta Blanche Stone; however, she never used Henrietta. Her name is listed as Blanche H. Franklin in the 1920 Lawton, Oklahoma census. The family moved to Texas and Blanche was orphaned there while still a young girl. She and her brother Hector and sisters Ella and Savannah went to live with their father's family, Uncle John and Aunt Sally Stone. Blanche's children reported that Blanche and her siblings lived in their uncle's house but were not treated as family. Blanche left at the age of 16 to marry Anderson Franklin. She and Anderson left Texas and roamed over the southwest. She bore twelve healthy children over a 24-year period and also raised two grandsons, Douglas Slover and William Allred.
Her daughters remembered her as the perfect mother, a very quiet woman. She read and sewed. Her hobby was making quilts. Once a year she would host a quilting party with women who went to the same church she attended in Oklahoma. She was a member of the Church of Christ there.
Blanche suffered a stroke in 1933, after the world's fair in Chicago, and was partially paralyzed in her left arm and leg. She was living in Duncan, Oklahoma with her last child, Joan (Emma Jean) and husband Anderson when her daughter Nona (Nannie Jane) stopped by. Nona was with her one husband that was in show business with her on the stage in New York. Nona asked Blanche why didn't she come to Southern California with she and her husband. Blanche said to wait a moment and went into her room and packed her clothes. She never asked Anderson, who was working in his blacksmith shop across the street, if she could go. Nona was very surprised but happy that her mother said yes. Six months later Anderson and Joan joined her in La Crescenta, California.
Blanche had only been in California ten months when she suffered a cerebral hemmorhage on November 26, 1934. She passed away three days later. Anderson buried her at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.