Legacy of `Mom'

Call her Mom. Practically everyone else in Spokane did.

By the time she passed away on Sept. 7 at age 97, Lillian Burnette had 14 children and more than 300 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

And those are just her blood relatives.

"Mom has a thousand kids all over the city," said Evelyn Burnette, Burnette's fifth child, and now the oldest of the family at 72. "She even knew kids from Saudi Arabia, Africa, Germany, you name it. Just by meeting her they'd all fall in love with her."

"She raised more than half of the Spokane police department," added Marsha Chapple, grandchild No. 12. "And she raised half of the prosecuting attorney's office, too. That can't be disputed 'cause I tell no lies."

Heck, even Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush routinely sent Burnette Christmas cards.

Burnette had a legendary reputation for feeding or housing anyone and everyone she met - friend, family or stranger - at her home of 72 years on North Standard Street.

"I'd come over after school and call my mom to tell her I'm having dinner with Mom Burnette," remembered Joyce Walls, a longtime neighbor. "Mom said, `No you don't! She's got 14 kids to feed!'"

Regardless of how many mouths were in her house - and make no mistake, it was her house even until the very end - Burnette always made sure there was plenty of food to go around.

"We never knew what it was like to go to the store and buy just a case of pop or half gallon of ice cream," Evelyn Burnette said. "They were always 5-gallon buckets."

For years she raised her own chickens, wringing their necks and plucking their feathers for "the best fried chicken you could ever eat," according to her kids. Meal times were always a celebration, and Burnette knew how to celebrate.

And it didn't matter what time of day it was; Burnett's hospitality knew no time zone.

After partying all night in 1954 with Harry James and His Band after a concert, Burnette's husband Henry made an early morning call to ask a favor of his wife.

"He said, `Momma, I want you to get up. I have the band with me,'" chuckled Evelyn. "She got up and made sausage, bacon and biscuits at six in the morning."

And every year until he passed away, Harry James sent Burnette a Christmas card. Those must have been some incredible biscuits.

"She had a knack for biscuits nobody could touch," Evelyn bragged.

Longtime friend Jerrelene Williamson called her "truly one of Spokane's black pioneers," a title often bestowed on Burnette. Since moving to Spokane from Texas in 1930, Burnette had a rapport with the Lilac City rivaled by few.

"She worked at the Davenport Hotel checking coats, and Dad was a maitre'd at the Spokane Club, so they knew everyone in town," said Evelyn, who followed with a list of Spokane's patriarchs whom her mother knew personally.

For all the attention Eastern Washington gets for racism, Burnette rarely experienced any. What little she received she handled with grace. "She and Dad always taught us not to look at the color of someone's skin," said Evelyn. "`Don't think you're better than anyone else,' they'd say. `You're judged by the company you keep.'"

"She was the very presence of grace," said Sally Burnette, the "baby" of the family who was an aunt three times before she was even born.

How else can you describe a woman who compassionately handled dozens of people in her house every day?

"Gramma didn't ever yell, scream or holler," said Jody Pinckney, grandchild No. 5. "And considering the number of people and personalities in this house, that was a miracle."

Indeed, if her children were fighting, she handled it with remarkable ingenuity, rather than an irate outburst.

Mary Burnette, the third youngest, remembered how Burnette ended her sibling rivalry with Sally as a child.

"She went out into the yard and fashioned two switches out of reeds," Mary said. "She gave one to each of us and said, `If you're gonna fight each other, use these.'"

Suffice it to say neither sister wanted to get whipped by the other, and the fighting ended.

"It was her way of uniting us," Mary said. "She was really a woman of wisdom. You'll never find another one like her."

Burnette, who outlived her Henry Burnette, two pacemakers and four children, lived to serve her family, but especially her husband.

"He didn't know what it was to put a shirt in the laundry," said Evelyn. "Are you kidding? She even ironed his socks!"

The 10 remaining Burnette children and numerous grandchildren swear they'll continue the legacy of good will Burnette was famous in Spokane for. The house - once Burnette's house - is now theirs. And the door is open.

"She's my foundation," said Sally. "She raised us with high morals, ethics and standards - all the good things you can't place a price tag on."

This sidebar appeared with the story:

Memorial

Rosary for Lillian Burnette is Friday at 7 p.m. at Hennessey- Smith Funeral Home. Funeral Mass is Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church. Burial will follow at Holy Cross cemetery.

Copyright 2002 Cowles Publishing Company
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