Martha Burns

MRS. LEON C. BURNS, SR. Mrs. Martha L. Harding Burns, 93, went to be with the Lord on November 9, 2002 in Searcy, Arkansas. A memorial service and interment will be in Bristol, Tennessee on November 30, 2002. She was preceded in death by her husband, Brother Leon C. Burns, Sr. and two daughters, Mary Burns Blankenship and Sarah Burns Paden.A native of Corbin, Kentucky, she was the daughter of the late James A. and Martha Cheatam Harding and was a graduate of David Lipscomb College in Nashville. Her love of people and talent for gracious entertaining complemented her husband's fifty-two years of ministry for Churches of Christ in Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Florida. The Burns family came to Columbia in 1940 where Brother Burns served as minister of the West Seventh Street Church of Christ to 1958. After her husband's death, she moved from East Tennessee to Cookeville where she became an active member of the Collegeside Church of Christ, Upper Cumberland Art Society, Sally Tompkins Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of the American Revolution and Cookeville Creative Writer's Guild. When Mrs. Burns moved to Searcy, Arkansas, her "remembrance cloths" kept her in touch with old friends. Beginning in 1963, dinner guests and visitors were asked to sign one of her table cloths. She later embroidered the signatures. As she ate her meals, each name brought back fond memories and frequently prompted her to paint an original note card on which she sent an encouraging message. The memory of her life will continue to brighten the lives of her family and a host of friends. Survivors include a daughter, Martha Burns McKee of Searcy, Arkansas; a son, Judge Leon C. Burns, Jr. of Cookeville; eight grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.