Lillian (Bonnie) Burke (1919-2012)

Bonnie Burke, one of the Champions of LeeteLeet Genealogy, passed away May 5.  She was a talented writer and contributed several articles to the Leete Legacy, our now defunct (any volunteers?) Family Association publication.  She was a wonderful, caring person.  She was a great help to me in establishing her previously undocumented branch of the LeeteLeet family tree.  Following is her obituary, but it doesn't really enlighten us on her contributions to the family history.  Her family branch is its own tree in ancestry.com and some of her articles and findings are in that tree.  I will continue to collect her contributions and place them on our family association web site.

Bonnie Burke

Lillian L. Burke was born in Spokane, WA January 28, 1919. She was an Honor Student at John Rogers High School where her favorite subject was music. Her mother's maiden name was Lourene A. Leete. Her father's name was William D. Bonner. It was natural for everyone to call her Bonnie. she had an older sister, Lucy; and a younger brother, Bill; but Bonnie outlived the rest of the family. She was 93 years old when she died May 5, 2012 in Edmonds, WA.
After attending Kinman Business University, she passed a Civil Service examination and accepted an appointment to the War Department in Washington D. C. Her father worked for the Great Northern Railroad so she traveled on a family pass. She was there when Pearl Harbor was attacked December 7, 1941. Bonnie has been a 7th Day Adventist since March 1942.
In 1944 she moved to Glendale, California where she was employed at Glendale Sanitarium. It was there that she met Administrator, Clarence Burke. They were married in 1952. She was step-mother to his children. They moved to Sacramento, CA where she was Supervisor of a hospital steno pool. In 1962 they moved to Portland, OR where she was a Medical Secretary and Tumor Registrar.
In 1967 they moved to Seattle , WA. She became a Certified Medical Registrar and Tumor Registrar while working at Northwest Hospital. In 1980 she retired to care for her husband who was ill. He died in 1982.
Bonnie was an active volunteer at the South County Senior Center in Edmonds, WA. She became a member of the Senior Swingers there in 1983, playing clarinet in the band and singing in shows like the Lawrence Welk Program. She was an excellent drummer for two years, when a vacancy occurred.
Bonnie attended a Creative Writing class, taught by Marylyn Pedersen at the Senior Center, and became a published writer. Many of her memoir stories have been published in Nostalgia Magazine of Spokane WA.