Thursday, December 29, 2011

Rev F E Burke, 1926-2011

I just got back to my home in Marietta, GA from my grandfather's funeral yesterday in Fenton, Michigan. Rev F E Burke died last Thursday after a long battle with leukemia at his winter home in Zephyrhills, FL. I flew down to Florida last weekend to see him, thinking he did not have much time. He died four days after I left. Here is an obituary. He was an amazing man.

My grandmother, Thelma Clara Womack Burke, had a minor stroke the day before the funeral, likely brought on by the stress of her husband's death, and caring for him in the last several weeks of his life. She is 86. She is in the hospital in Flint, MI, and we are praying for her. She was able to leave the hospital for a while to attend my grandpa's funeral service. She is the most kindhearted lady I have ever known.

Thelma and her sister Jewell are the last surviving children of my great-grandparents, Olga Austin Womack (1897-1949) and Mary Ann "Mollie" Hill (1900-1991).

Between my job, my 2 young daughters, my pregnant wife (expecting a boy in late March), deaths and health problems, I have been pretty busy, but I definitely want to get back to genealogy soon.