Obituary of Rosemary Burton

Rosemary was born in Mansfield, Louisiana on November 16, 1925, to William Henry and Fern Bailey Elliott. She graduated from Mansfield High School and then from LSU with a BS with majors in speech, theatre, and French from the College of Education. She was given membership in honors societies for speech and drama and education. Her proudest award was for Best Student Director during her senior year. Her first teaching position was in Vicksburg, Mississippi at All Saints’ College, an Episcopal girls’ prep school and two-year college where she taught French for one year. Then she was hired by the LSU Department of Education to teach in the Laboratory School on campus where she was in charge of speech and theatre student teaching. During this tenure she met and married Robert Burton to whom she was wed for 54 years. The Burtons lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where their first son Steve was born, in Brookshaven, Mississippi, and in Memphis, Tennessee where their son John was born. Then they moved to Fort Worth where Robert accepted a professorship in music at SWBTS and their daughter Meredith was born. Rosemary taught speech and theatre at Arlington Heights High School for 22 years, staging two productions a year, usually a play and a musical. For many years she also entered the one act play contest winning numerous awards. In addition to her Bachelor’s degree she earned graduate credits from LSU, TCU, and Indiana U. Travel included five trips to Europe, one of which was a year in England with a memorable side visit to Russia and the Baltic countries.Rosemary is preceded in death by her husband Robert and her daughter Meredith.Rosemary is survived by: son Steve and wife Ann, son John and wife Holly, son-in-law Gary Madsen, grandsons Nathan Madsen, Chris and Craig Burton and three great-grandchildren.