Editing Robert Bloch (section)

==Personal life==
On October 2, 1940, Bloch married Marion Ruth Holcombe; it was reportedly a marriage of convenience designed to keep Bloch out of the army.<ref>{{harvnb|Bloch|1993|p=158}}</ref> During their marriage, she suffered (initially undiagnosed) from [[tuberculosis]] of the bone, which affected her ability to walk.<ref>{{harvnb|Bloch|1993|pp=215–217}}</ref>

After working for 11 years for the Gustav Marx Advertising Agency in Milwaukee, Bloch left in 1953 and moved to [[Weyauwega, Wisconsin|Weyauwega]], Marion's home town, so she could be close to friends and family. Although she was eventually cured of tuberculosis, she and Bloch divorced in 1963. Bloch's daughter Sally (born 1943) elected to stay with him.

On January 18, 1964, Bloch met recently widowed Eleanor ("Elly") Alexander (née Zalisko), who had lost her first husband, writer/producer John Alexander, to a heart attack three months earlier, and married her in a civil ceremony on the following October 16. Elly was a fashion model and cosmetician.<ref>{{harvnb|Bloch|1993|pp=308–309}}</ref> They honeymooned in [[Tahiti]], and in 1965 visited London, then [[British Columbia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bloch|1993|pp=304–313}}</ref> They remained happily married until Bloch's death. Elly remained in the Los Angeles area for several years after selling their Laurel Canyon Home to fans of Bloch, eventually choosing to go home to Canada to be closer to her own family. She died March 7, 2007, at the Betel Home in [[Selkirk, Manitoba]], Canada. Her ashes have been placed next to Bloch's in a similar book-shaped urn at Pierce Brothers in Westwood, California.

Bloch died on September 23, 1994 from cancer aged 77.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |title=Robert Bloch |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rbloch.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604230952/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rbloch.htm |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland}}</ref><ref name="Robert Bloch on Poe and Lovecraft">{{Cite web |title=Robert Bloch on Poe and Lovecraft |url=http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720222740/http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm |archive-date=July 20, 2011 |access-date=February 26, 2011 |website=alangullette.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert Bloch |url=http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/RobertBloch.html |website=www.tabula-rasa.info}}</ref> He survived by seven months the death of another member of the original "Lovecraft Circle", [[Frank Belknap Long]], who had died in January 1994.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Indick |first=Ben P. |date=Spring 1994 |title=In Memoriam: Frank Belknap Long |journal=Lovecraft Studies |issue=30 |pages=3–4 |issn=0899-8361}}</ref>

Bloch was [[cremation|cremated]] and his ashes interred in the Room of Prayer [[columbarium]] at [[Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery]] in Los Angeles.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Robert Bloch - Friend of H.P. Lovecraft |url=http://www.eeriebooks.com/horror/writers/robert-bloch/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320192718/http://www.eeriebooks.com/horror/writers/robert-bloch/ |archive-date=March 20, 2012 |access-date=October 29, 2017 |publisher=eeriebooks.com}}</ref> His wife Elly is also interred there.

The Robert Bloch Award is presented at the annual NecronomiCon convention. Its recipient in 2013 was editor and scholar [[S.T. Joshi]]. The award is in the shape of the [[Shining Trapezohedron]] as described in H. P. Lovecraft's tale dedicated to Bloch, "The Haunter of the Dark".