Jean Burns Obituary (1931 - 2024)

Ferrell Jean Burns, 93, was our mom and mentor. She and her husband Alvin raised a great family of three children: Dwight, Camille and Frank. We all became proficient in our fields of expertise, following our passions, as taught by our parents. We are each forever grateful for the life she led, the guidance she delivered, and the example she lived. ------------------------------------------ Jean, as she was known, was born in Trenton, NJ on 17-Sep-31 to Thelma Puckett and Ferrell Arlo Gallimore. Ferrell Arlo, inexplicably known as “Pete”, was a construction worker who ran a concrete subcontracting business. Pete’s work kept him traveling across the country chasing work during the depression and afterwards. He had a construction role on the Hoover Dam project outside of Las Vegas in the early 1930s. As a result of her family’s many relocations, Jean grew up in many areas of the country. As she was entering junior high school, the family settled in Louisville, KY. Jean attended Louisville public schools and graduated from Louisville Girls High School in 1949. During her early education she developed math, music and literary skills. She particularly enjoyed geometry and, when her kids were in school, she would help them with their homework. She surprised her kids by displaying an unexpected pleasure from solving geometry proofs. Jean also enjoyed literature and poetry. When choosing names for her kids, all options were in iambic pentameter, exhibiting only and exactly five syllables. A nod to the Bard! She then enrolled in Georgetown College (Georgetown, KY) where she studied and earned a degree in Music with an emphasis on vocal performance. Jean loved opera, performing in several college productions and church music. Music was always a mainstay in Jean’s life. After graduation, Jean became a music and youth assistant at Carlisle Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville. It was there that she met her future husband, Alvin Everett Burns. Alvin was stationed at Fort Knox, KY a few miles outside of Louisville. He visited the church, they met, and they later married. The wedding took place at Carlisle Baptist on 22-Jul-1956. Jean and Alvin set out for Dallas shortly after the wedding, where Alvin began his career as a CPA and later established an accounting partnership that operated for almost 50 years. During their time in Dallas, Jean raised a family. Her eldest son Dwight became an architect, retiring after a 40-year career to start a new homebuilding company in Dallas. Daughter Camille studied music and business at SMU and Dallas Baptist University, respectively, and worked in the business community during her career. She also developed a love of expressive painting. After a miraculous healing, she promoted a prophetic artist ministry at her church. Her youngest son Frank earned a medical degree and a theology degree. He became a respected physician and medical director at a hospital in Florida and became a bi-vocational pastor at his local church. Raising her family was one of Jean’s greatest successes in life! All during her life, church played an important role. Beginning at First Baptist Dallas, Jean sang in the choir under the direction of Leroy Till, whom she adored. The family later joined First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff, where she was also a choir member and soloist. In 1972, the family moved their membership to Wilshire Baptist Church, pastored by Bruce McIver who was loved and adored by them and the rest of the congregation. Jean worked or volunteered at each of these churches for most of her life. At First Oak Cliff, she helped with the music program and managed the kitchen for Wednesday night fellowship meals. She also ran the kitchen at Wilshire for a time, before accepting administrative positions in the education and music departments. When Jean retired in 2012, she had been working in publications and communications. After retiring from Wilshire, she continued to serve. For quite a few years, Jean helped families to plan and organize funeral and memorial services and help them negotiate the logistics of loss. Jean loved to entertain. Her friends from multiple churches looked forward to an annual New Year’s Eve dinner event that she hosted in her home. This was a sit-down buffet from which no one left hungry. In her sunset years, Jean and Alvin downsized and moved into an independent living apartment at Presbyterian Village North and remained at PVN until the end of her life. Jean’s death was caused by a fall in her apartment that caused a brain bleed. She opted not to have surgery and passed from this life into God’s care on 12-Dec-24. She was lovingly surrounded by family members at her departure. Jean was predeceased by her parents, Pete and Thelma Gallimore, and her brother, William Orvel (“Bill”) Gallimore. She was also predeceased by her husband of 62 years, Alvin Burns. Jean was the last living member of her generation on Alvin’s side of the family, a large group of siblings and spouses comprised of the six sons and daughters of Andrew and Ila Burns of Texarkana, TX. She is survived by her children: Dwight (Karen) Burns of Dallas, TX and their son Everett (Valerie Sly) Burns of Birmingham, AL; Camille Riggs of Dallas, TX; Frank (Tammy) Burns of Sarasota, FL and their three children: Alex (Alicia Ferraris) Burns of Chicago, IL; Nick (East Berhane) of Dallas, TX; and Kylie (Ryan) Graves of Nashville, TN. In addition to her four grandchildren, Jean also leaves behind two great-grandsons and two soon-to-be-born great-granddaughters. This family is Jean’s legacy. Jean will be inurned in the Columbarium at Wilshire Baptist Church in a private, family service. She has requested that any memorials be made to Wilshire Baptist Church (Dallas), earmarked for their Pathways to Ministry fund.