Biography of John Emerson Burke, Jr, St Francis County, AR

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Submitted by: Paul V Isbell
        Date: 19 Nov 2008
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The firm of Burke's Mortuary was started in 1913 by H. L. Williams, uncle of the
present owner, J. E. Burke, Jr., as the H. L. Williams Undertaking Co. where the
Esso station is located on Hwy 70 downtown, and now the National Bank of Eastern
Arkansas. On Sept. 14, 1951, it became Burke's Mortuary. Mrs. Burke Sr. had
operated the firm after her brother, Robert J. Williams died in 1938, who had
been operating the firm since H. L. Williams passed away in 1922. The firm was
taken over by John Emerson Burke Jr. at that time in 1951. They also operate the
Peoples Burial Association. John Jr. graduated from the Palmer Memorial
Institute in Sedalia, N. C., attended Arkansas A. & M. in Pine Bluff, Fisk
University in Nashville, Tenn., and Eckels College of Mortuary in Philadelphia,
Pa., finishing in Sept. 1950. He also took post graduate training in Mortuary
Science at the Metropolitan Funeral Home in Chicago. He had been helping out
since age 14 in the funeral home activities. He is a talented musician, as head
of the department of Music at the Palmer Memorial Institute, and had his own
band for a time duing his schooling in Pine Bluff. On Dec. 31, 1952, he married
Miss Gussie Mae Ford, daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Ford of Pensacola,
Fla. He belongs to the First Baptist Church, Masons, Elks, Forrest City Civic
League, St. Francis county and Forrest City Voters Leagues, Arkansas Negro and
National Funeral Directors Associations. He is Sect. of the Forrest City
Cemetery, Inc.


SOURCE:
HISTORY of ST. FRANCIS COUNTY, ARKANSAS, 1954 - Robert W. Chowning

Copyright, with Permission: Weston McCollum Lewey, Publisher
-Times Herald Publishing-Forrest City, Arkansas