Dorothy Mary Burns

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PAST GUESTBOOK SIGNINGSDorothy Mary Burns passed away Monday June 29, 2015 at the age of 93. Dorothy, also called "Dee Dee", was born December 29, 1921, to William and Loretta (Kelly) Burns in Valley Falls, Kansas. She attended St. Marys Grade School, Valley Falls High School and received a teaching certificate from Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas. She is preceded in death by her parents; her brothers Bob (Margaret, Jean), Edmund (Virginia), and Francis (Ursula). She is survived by her brother Wendall (Eleanor), many devoted nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and admirers. Dorothy grew up on a farm with her parents and four brothers. She was a self-reliant, hard-working and independent individual who enjoyed a life of self-made adventure. After teaching in a classroom for a single year, she left the farm to live with Aunt Gertrude Kelly in Topeka and work as a medical transcriptionist before moving to live and work in Chicago. Eventually she specialized in legal transcription in Washington, DC and San Francisco, where she lived for decades and covered prominent trials such as the Patty Hearst case. While she loved the big cities, she returned to Kansas City to be close to and spend more time with family in 1989. Dorothy devoted herself to her extended Burns and Kelly families, as well as to her Catholic faith, attending many Catholic churches, including St. Francis Xavier and Redemptorist. In Burns family tradition, Dorothy employed constant focus on keeping sharp, practicing her penmanship through the last month of her life and writing note cards on each relative to track family history. Dorothy enjoyed fashion, current events, politics and daily crossword puzzles. She loved words, the rosary, people watching, a nice meal and a good story. But at the core of her life, Dorothy placed family first: her parents, aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters-in-law, cousins, nieces and nephews, and their children. In recent years, Dorothy provided constant companionship to her sister-in-law Ginny Burns after Ginnys health failed. Dorothy was a woman of beauty, elegance and dignity throughout her life and was beloved by family and friends. She will be buried close to the Kelly/Burns homestead, near her beloved parents and Aunt Gertrude in Valley Falls, Kansas. Wake will take place on Friday, July 10, 2015 at 8am, the Rosary will be said at 8:30am and funeral Mass will be held at 9am at Redemptorist Church at 3333 Broadway in Kansas City, MO. Her burial will take place at 12pm at St. Marys Cemetery in Valley Falls, Kansas.