Cover photo for Judith Leanne Burton's Obituary
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1946 Judith 2019

Judith Leanne Burton

March 7, 1946 — September 23, 2019

Judith Leanne Burton, resident of Evensville, Tennessee, passed away on Monday, September 23, 2019, following a hard battle with lung cancer.

Judy was born on March 7, 1946 to Matilda and Chester Burton of Detroit, Michigan. She was one of 14 children, including 5 girls and 9 boys.

As the oldest girl in the family, Judy began helping to care for her younger siblings at an early age by babysitting, sewing clothes, helping with cooking and cleaning. As a teenager she took part-time jobs to the support the family, eventually dropping out of high school to work full time.

At 17 she earned her GED so that she could enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. After boot camp at Paris Island, she was transferred to Marine Base Quantico, VA for training as a communications specialist and then assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California, where she served the remaining term of her 3-year enlistment. During her service at El Toro, she joined the Women Marine track team, representing the Armed Forces in the Marine Corps Schools Relays, competing against long-distance medal winners from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Judy was selected for the 440-yard relay and the 800-yard run, winning several races before a leg injury ended her running career.

After discharge from the Marines, Judy worked for an electronics company in California for a year before returning home to Detroit to accept a position in the meats department of Great Scott Foods, a local grocery chain, eventually promoted to assistant manager of the department. Later she worked for 2 years as a machine operator in a General Motors auto plant.

In 1973, Judy left the cold winters of Michigan behind and moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to work for friends doing new construction cleaning. This led to a housekeeping position at a local hospital.

Seeing an ad for training to be a certified nursing assistant, Judy took the course, achieved certification and was hired at Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Medical Center as a CNA in the VA nursing home department. Later she transferred to the Medical Records department and was promoted to administrative assistant, training and evaluating the performance of new clerks in the department.

While filling in for a clerk in the GI lab, she tried to stop a patient from falling off a gurney and suffered a severe back injury. Several surgeries later, she became unable to work full time and was granted a partial disability under the Workers Compensation program. A year later she resigned from the VA and moved to Spring City, Tennessee as part owner of the Spring City Garden Center. When the business was closed by the state to use the property for highway development, she worked at a variety of other part-time jobs in Dayton, finally resigning when she suffered debilitating pain from what was later diagnosed as lung cancer.

Judy was a very artistic, talented person. She excelled at anything she became interested in, including oil painting, crafts, horticulture, fishing, animal husbandry, construction and remodeling. She loved her family and friends, she loved animals, and she always took care of any person or animal she found in need of her support.

Judy was preceded in death by her mother, Matilda V. Burton, her father, Chester C. Burton, two brothers, James C. and Randall J. Burton, and two nephews, Thomas W. Burton, Jr. and Robert Scott McGraw.

She is survived by 7 brothers, including Gerald L. Burton, Theodore E. Burton, and Jon A. Burton of Michigan; Thomas W. Burton and Richard D. Burton of Tennessee; Budd Burton of Florida; Kevin S. Burton of Kentucky; and by 4 sisters, including Linda L. Greenwald and Lena Mae McGraw of Tennessee; and Mary K. Klein and Nanci D. Mousel of Michigan. She is also survived by her partner and best friend of 36 years, Anne Clark, and her special nieces, Laurie Burton and Sheila McGraw, their families, and other nieces and nephews.

According to her wishes, her body will be cremated and her ashes scattered at her favorite fishing place in Florida without a formal memorial service.

To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Judith Leanne Burton, please visit our flower store.

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