John Harrison Burney

John Harrison Burney was born on January 20, 1913, in Line, Arkansas, to Eli Taylor Burney and Emma Caroline Garrett Burney. He was the third son of a country doctor in a sawmill town. After completing high school, he took the state teachers' exam, and worked as a bus driver for a dollar a day, teaching algebra and geometry for free (since he was going to be at the school anyway). When that school closed (many public schools closed during the Depression), he opened a contract school ($3 per month per student) for a year. Then he worked his way through Chillicothe Business School, graduating in 1935. In 1936, he accepted a job as secretary and bookkeeper at the Baptist Home in Ironton, MO. On his first day at the Home he met a nurse's aide to whom he was quite attracted. On July 23, 1937, he and Gladys Phillips secretly eloped. Gladys was a powerful, loving, and faithful companion for the next 73 years. They had three children: Ruth Ann; Jeanette Elaine, who is married to George Ashley; and John Taylor,...