Blanche Hogg grew up on Myrtle Street in Summerside. After graduating from high school, she took a one-year secretarial course and in 1938 began working in the office of the department store of Sinclair & Stewart. She and her friends enjoyed getting together for bike rides, impromptu gatherings, and parties held around town. One evening in June 1940, Blanche, Hester Cushing, and Louise LeBlanc organized a dance at the Capitol Grill in order to raise money to purchase blankets for European refugees. Blanche also participated in war work by joining the local Red Cross Corps. After the local RCAF station was established she and other local girls often would go to the Red Triangle Club to play cards with airmen or meet up with them at the dances.
In August 1942, Blanche was hired as stenographer for the new federal government National Selective Office, a position in which she remained until the fall of 1943 when she decided to join the army. After enlistment on 1 December, Blanche left for Halifax to await her basic training, which started in January 1944 in Kitchener, Ontario. At the end of six weeks, she was posted to the office of chemical warfare in Ottawa. Shortly thereafter, she was transferred to post-war planning.
Blanche got home for a visit with her parents in June 1944 and then returned to the nation's capital where she had a small apartment with a roommate. Her discharge came through in February 1946 and she returned to Summerside to resume work with the Department of Labour, which had its office in the Journal Publishing Company building.
