Harold Jackson Burnette

Harold Jackson Burnette, son of Verlon Dewey Burnette and Eunice May Mitchem, was born in Walton County, Georgia on September 24, 1930. His parents, married about 1927, had four children—Helen Clara Burnette (1928), Harold Jackson Burnette (1930), Carolyn Burnette (1933), and Alma Jo Burnette (1935). His nickname was Bud and he is my 2nd cousin 1x removed. Our nearest common relatives are Samuel Pride Burnett and Millicent Virginia Overton, my 2nd great grandparents.

Burnette children: Helen, Harold (Bud), Alma, and Carolyn.
Photo used with permission of Deborah Huff.

The Burnette family still lived in Walton County in 1935 when Alma was born, but by the time the 1940 census was taken on April 27, they had moved to a home located at Redan and Stone Mountain Road in Stone Mountain, DeKalb County, Georgia. Harold’s father was a self-employed filling station operator, working a 72-hour week between March 24–30. Harold, age 9, and his sisters Helen and Carolyn were attending school. The highest-grade Harold had completed was the second. The census enumerator spelled his mother’s name “Unis.”

One month before Harold would celebrate his 14th birthday, he died from an unknown type of cancer on August 27, 1944. Although the death notice published in the August 28 edition of The Atlanta Constitution stated he was 12 years of age, he would have been 13. Harold was buried on August 29 at Corinth Memorial Gardens in Loganville, Walton County following a service at Stone Mountain Baptist Church officiated by Rev. Weyman Fields. He was survived by his parents; sisters Helen, Carolyn, and Alma; his paternal grandparents Abijah Winkfield and Eugenia Nancy “Churchhill” Burnette; and his maternal grandmother Lizzie Mitchem.

References

• Burnette, Harold Jackson “Bud,” The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, August 28 and 29, 1944.
• Personal memory of and family photo provided by Deborah Huff.
• Personal visit to Corinth Memorial Gardens, Loganville, Georgia.
• U.S. Federal Census, Militia District 415, Walton County, Georgia, 1930.
• U.S. Federal Census, Stone Mountain, DeKalb County, Georgia, 1940.