Pearl Burns in 2009 on the South Crest Trail |
Pearl's last wildflower walk as a Forest Service Volunteer (Juan Tomas Road, August 25, 2012) |
Pearl's 90th Birthday Celebration in Albuquerque, NM (September 7, 2012) |
Here is her obituary:
Pearl Marie Burns
September 7, 1922-April 17, 2017
Pearl was raised in the railroad town of Las Vegas, New
Mexico. Perhaps she got her determination from her mother, Florence Viola St.
Clair, who was married, a mother and a widow at age 19. She might have gotten
her height and strength from her father, Earl Hall, a fireman with the Rio
Grande Railroad who was killed in a train derailment in 1923. And maybe she got
her kindness from her step-father Dan Pitt, who raised her and her younger
sister, Ila Pitt Jenson.
In her youth, Pearl enjoyed playing the saxophone in the Las
Vegas High School Marching Band and Orchestra. Being an independent spirit, she
was probably frustrated when she played half-court basketball, a limitation put
upon the women of her time. She enjoyed
being creative, such as when she used her excellent seamstress skills to make
dolls to sell while in high school.
Her intelligence was put to good use when she attended the
University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She expressed her strong American
spirit when, with the advent of World War II and the growing need for nurses, she
put her degree on hold, moved to Denver, married (and later divorced) Raymond
“Red” Mohr, and enrolled in the Colorado Training School for Nurses. In her
words, “I had signed up with the Cadet Nurses Corps so had a cute uniform to
wear. The war was over before my nursing education was completed, but I had a
career.” She was a working mother before it was in vogue, raising her two sons,
Robert Mohr and his younger brother Thomas (Tommy) Mohr while working as a
visiting nurse. Her fortitude was surely tested when caring for children with
polio in the iron lung while working at Children’s Hospital, and later when her
own son Tommy contracted polio at age five, and even the iron lung couldn’t
save him.
She lived briefly in Clinton, Illinois, where she worked as a
nurse at Revere Ware Copper and Brass. Later, she moved to Albuquerque, New
Mexico where she subsequently married Floyd “Burley” Burns and had sons, Gerald
“Jerry” Burns, William ”Bill” Burns, and daughter, Candace Burns Ballantyne. In
1959, she began her favorite job of her career, in the delivery room at
Presbyterian Hospital, where she once delivered a baby in the back seat of a
car, much to the surprise of the father! She moved up through the ranks and her
career climaxed as the Director of Nursing Services at Anna Kaseman Hospital,
where she retired in 1980. 22 years later, she returned to the University of
New Mexico and completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology. When the love of
her life, Burley, predeceased her in 1981, she began to sprout wings.
Pearl continued her lifelong passions (bridge playing, reading,
sewing, gardening, and knitting), but then began adding other talents to her
skillset (upholstery, painting, weaving, quilting, and crocheting). Ginny
Smith, one of the women in her upholstery class invited her to join her hiking
group. She was also invited by longtime friend, Linda Buffett, to join the
“Happy Hoofers” hiking group. On the first hike with Linda, she saw Ginny and
realized it must be a great group of women, if they were
both in it! It didn’t take much encouragement from her friends to get her
outside more and combine her love of learning and nature. She increased her knowledge
of the grasses, trees, bushes, and especially the wildflowers while hiking.
That transitioned into backpacking with the “Meadow Muffins”, men and women who
ascended New Mexico’s higher peaks and Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks, and descended
into the Grand Canyon and slot canyons. At 64, she hiked Uncompahgre, her first
14,000 peak. Year after year, she continued to add more peaks to her growing
list, until her last 14er at age 83.
In middle age, she enjoyed downhill skiing with her
children, and camping with her family. With each year, she spread her wings a
little more, and in later in life she added cross country skiing, snowshoeing
and white water rafting to her accomplishments, and traveled internationally with
friends to New Zealand, Australia, South America and Europe.
As her knowledge of native plants and wildflowers grew, she
began to lead wildflower hikes for the Sandia Ranger District and Albuquerque
Open Space and she began to soar! In 2003, she was flown to Washington, D.C. to
accept the National Forest Service Volunteer of the Year Award. In 2005, she
co-authored the wildflower section of the “Field Guide to the Sandia Mountains”
with Tom Ferguson and Jeanette Buffett. In 2011, she and Larry Littlefield co-authored
“Wildflowers of the Sandia and Manzano Mountains of Central New Mexico”. In
2015, they collaborated again on “Wildflowers of the Northern and Central
Mountains of New Mexico”.
When it
became clear to Pearl that her hiking days were numbered, she worked
with the Forest Service to begin training her successors. She was proud of
the cohort of volunteers, her successors,
who carry the torch for her, teaching a love for the outdoors and
specifically, wildflowers.
Pearl is survived by her sons, Robert Mohr; Jerry (Liz) Burns;
and Bill (Marcia) Burns; daughter Candace Ballantyne (Bill Wharton); sister Ila
Jenson; grandsons Tommy Burns; Bryan (Lynell) Burns, Jason (Stephanie) and
Scott (Kayci) Burns; Burley (Deidra) Burns; Clint (Stacie) Burns; Garrett
Burns; Dustin (Taylor) Burns, Kelly (Erin) Ballantyne, Jeff Ballantyne, and in
addition to the blessing of six great grandsons, and FINALLY, seven great
granddaughters.
There will be a celebration of her life in Denver, Colorado on
Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 10:00 at New Denver Church, 700 Bonnie Brae Blvd.,
Denver, 80209 and a casual
open house celebration in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday, April 30 2:00-5:00 at the Sandia Ranger District Administration Building, 11776 Hwy.
337; Tijeras, New Mexico 87059.
In lieu of flowers, the family
suggests donations to the following, or the organization of your choice.
Friends of the Sandia Mountains (Please make
checks payable to FOSM)
PO Box 1832
PO Box 1832
Tijeras, New Mexico 87059
505-281-3304
Albuquerque BioPark Botanic Gardens
2601 Central NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104
505-768-2000
https://www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/biopark/garden/contact