Theo Burns of Columbus, Mississippi

June 5, 1928 - January 4, 2020

MARY THEO BURNS

Mary Theo Wright Burns, age 91, died Saturday, January 04, 2020, in her home in Columbus, Mississippi. Graveside services will be held on Friday, January 17, at 2:00 PM at Friendship Cemetery. As per her requests, The Reverend Gene Bramlett of Covenant United Methodist Church, her minister, will be officiating. Giving the eulogy will be a close family friend, The Reverend Dr. James Shull, of First Presbyterian Church of Crystal Springs, Mississippi. And all hearts will be lifted by songs from Tina Morgan, music and singer selected by Mrs. Burns.

Theo, as she preferred to be called, was born in her parents’ home on June 05, 1928, in Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi. She was the one and only child of Lewis Belton Wright and Mary Pauline Robertson Wright. Nevertheless, she once estimated that she had more than six dozen first cousins, mostly in Lowndes County and neighboring Alabama counties.

Theo loved Columbus and never wanted to live in any other place. She attended several public elementary schools, but her sixth-grade teacher, Miss Virginia Mae Ferrill, at Demonstration School remained vivid in her memory her entire life. Theo was only a small child when her grandmother first instilled in her a love of going to the picture show. As a teenager, during World War II, she worked at the local movie theatres. The war years were a stirringly patriotic time for young Theo. And she never lost her love of country.

Mary Theo Wright was a graduate of the S.D. Lee High School, Class of 1946, in Columbus. It was also, fortuitously, the class in which her future husband, Fayette Charles Burns, Jr., graduated after returning from WWII.

Theo and Fayette married on August 20, 1949. According to a contemporaneous wedding-announcement article in The Commercial Dispatch, “Mrs. Burns is one of the young business women of Columbus, a secretary at Universal C.I.T. She attended M.S.C.W. for two years before entering the business world.”

Shortly after their marriage, Fayette Charles and Mary Theo Burns were baptized into the Methodist Church. They were loyal, involved members of Central United Methodist Church on College Street in Columbus. Theo taught Sunday School for decades and Fayette enjoyed being on the Board of Trustees.

By 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Burns had been blessed with their two exceptionally brilliant children: a girl, Leslie, and a boy, named for his father, but called Rocky. Once her babies were born, Theo became a dedicated, stay-at-home mom. But she also spent her children’s elementary-school years helping as a homeroom mother and Brownie Troop Leader. Theo realized her love of teaching and, when her children entered junior high, she went back to work as a teacher’s assistant for reading, which was the perfect job for a voracious reader like she was. Theo was employed by the Columbus Public School System, at Mitchell Elementary and, later, Union Academy, until she retired. Theo adored her young students and her fellow teachers.

Fayette and Theo were always each other’s best friend. If they ever disagreed, they did so in private. Their love for each other was obvious for all to see. And that devotion to each other created a home full of love for their children, of whom they were fiercely proud. The love that Theo and Fayette gave them unfailingly grew into a strong foundation to which those children became willingly tethered, throughout their lives, despite miles of geographical separation. And it continues to be felt even now that their daughter and son are in their sixties. Theo and Fayette were married for more than 68 years until the passing of her husband in 2017.

Mary Theo Wright Burns, though she never considered herself to be particularly social, has left behind more friends and extended family than can be listed here. She loved them all—and still does. But no one will miss her more than her daughter, Leslie, who lives in Columbus; her son, Rocky, and her daughter-in-law, Donna, who live in Florida; her granddaughter, Audrey, a U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant; and her great-grandson, Landon. Because Theo was an only child, she was delighted to be able to share her husband’s immediate family: his niece, Delilah Williams and her husband, Jim, his grandnephew, Brooks Pack III, and his first cousin, William L. Caldwell.

In lieu of flowers, the Burns Family requests that memorials be sent to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary, a local charity, 144 Sanctuary Loop, Caledonia, MS 39740. However, the Burns Family realizes that local florists need to be patronized, especially in the interest of having a thriving economy in Columbus. If anyone prefers to honor Theo with flowers, please send them to beautify her cemetery plot. She would love that, too.