Mary E. Burnette
1925-2013
Spouse
Colonel Adolphus Burnette
1910-1983
Children
Cornel Burnette
Daarel Burnette
Marlon Burnette
A quite, gracious lady, Mrs. Mary E. Burnette and her late husband, Colonel Adolphus Burnette, TSGT US Air Force raised three sons, Cornel, Daarel and Marlon Burnette. She spent 30 years in the classroom. She graduated from Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University in 1951. Immediately after graduating, she was recruited from Walton County to oversee the start-up the Okaloosa County segregated school, even though she had been offered a position in Miami, Fla. She became the first African-American teacher in Okaloosa County.
Mrs. Burnette was both an exemplary and superior educator in Okaloosa County that elevated the affluence of a myriad of Fort Walton Beach citizens.
- She was the co-founder of the Okaloosa County Head Start Program and served 22 years with the program from 1969-89.
- Taught at Brooks Elementary and W. E. Combs High School.
- She was instrumental in recruiting administrators, instructors and parents as teacher aids in classrooms.
Mrs. Burnette and her late husband developed the Burnette Apartments on Bobolink Street NE that are the only apartments from the 1950’s that remain on Bobolink Street NE in FWB Mid-town area. They lived on Washington Avenue (17 McGriff Street NE) in Mid-town FWB before building a new home at 200 Burnette Avenue NW, FWB where Mrs. Burnette lived until moving to the Bob Hope Village in Shalimar. Burnette Avenue NW was named in her honor.
Upon retirement, she traveled throughout the country in her recreation vehicle and globally to South Africa. When her health began to decline in 2002, she retreated to the Bob Hope Village and eventually, the Hawthorne House.
She was inducted into The Okaloosa County Women’s Hall of Fame in August 1913 at a ceremony at the Costa Leadership Institute at Northwest Florida State College.
Family, Friends and Former Students Celebrated her 87th Birthday on May 19, 2012.
Mrs. Mary E. Burnette died on March 13, 2013- age 87. Her services were held on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at Beulah Baptist Church, 109 McGriff Street, N.E., Fort Walton Beach, FL, and she was inurn at Magnolia Cemetery, DeFuniak Springs, Fla.