F.C. Burns. Jr.

Fayette Charles Burns, Jr., age 92, died Friday, December 01, 2017, at Baptist Memorial Hospital , Columbus . Memorial services with U.S. Army Honors, will be held Tuesday, December 05, 2017, 2:00 PM, at Memorial Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Gene Bramlett officiating. Visitation will be held Tuesday from 12:30 until the service time at the funeral home.

Mr. Burns was born on January 12, 1925, in New Hope , Lowndes County , MS , at his grandparents Tom and Delilah Brownlee’s farm. His father was Fayette Charles Burns, Sr. of Williamson County, TN. His father had moved to the Lowndes County, MS, area and was married to Miss Alma Idamae Brownlee in 1918. The Brownlees were among the first settlers in Lowndes County , when they relocated from Abbeville , SC , in 1818.

Mr. Burns called Columbus , MS , home his entire life. He attended public school and entered S.D. Lee High School in the early 1940s as World War II was beginning. During his senior year in 1943, he received a “Greetings” notification from the United States Army. He made a fine soldier, Private First Class Fayette Charles Burns Jr. He was first stationed in the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, D.C. Then he was sent to the Pacific Theater as a gun crewman in Battery A 950 th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion 35 th Division. He participated in several campaigns, including New Guinea , the Southern Philippines, and Luzon . He saw the most combat action in the Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor in February 1945. And he stood at attention with the other soldiers as General Douglas MacArthur returned to ceremonially take back the island fortress.

When Mr. Burns was honorably discharged, thankfully unharmed, he returned to his family in Columbus and graduated with the Lee High Class of 1946. After attending business school at Mississippi State College, he went to work for the Life Insurance Company of Georgia . Soon, he became smitten with Miss Mary Theo Wright, also a Class of 1946 Lee High graduate and a student at Mississippi State College for Women. They married in 1949. Mr. and Mrs. Burns, by 1956, were the parents of two beautiful and highly-intelligent children: a girl, Leslie, and a boy, named for his father, but called Rocky.

Mr. Burns was a loyal employee of the Life Insurance Company of Georgia for more than 40 years. He rose in the company, finding his true calling, as an auditor. He had the rare talent of catching embezzlers with his meticulous accounting skills, confronting them with their errors in judgement, yet conveying his belief in them that they could do better. Some of them, even when fired, thanked him.

When he retired, he spent time refinishing and restoring furniture, including antique pianos. Mr. Burns loved music and had a collection of amplified guitars and a bass. But his heart was in playing the piano. He would have loved to have been a honky-tonk piano player. He had a connection with all animals which seemed naturally to be drawn to him. His beloved Manx, a rescue cat, will grieve for him.

His family, immediate and extended, is heartbroken at his passing. He leaves behind his wife of 68 years, Mary Theo Burns, and his daughter, Leslie, who live in Columbus . His son, Rocky, and his daughter-in-law, Donna, live in Mary Ester, FL. His granddaughter, Audrey, and his great-grandson, Landon, are stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier City , LA. His niece, Delilah Williams and her husband, Jimmy, his grand-nephew, Brooks Pack, his first cousin, Bill Caldwell, and his first cousin once removed, George Green, helped to make his last days overflow with love.

The family of Fayette Charles Burns Jr. would like to thank the medical staff at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle for their patience, care, and sincere concern for Mr. Burns and the family’s welfare, especially Peter Tofts, MD and Kyle Spencer, RN. With the certainty that some of the wonderful staff has been unintentionally left out, the family ask that they forgive them in their fog of grief.

In lieu of flowers, the Burns family would like to request that contributions be made to the Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary in Caledonia or the Columbus Lowndes Humane Society. <iframe id="tukios_player_512x330" allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="330" scrolling="no" src="https://www.tributeslides.com/videos/embedded_video/JCBBYWB4C48YC8MF" width="512"></iframe>