[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7892-S7893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     MARY FRANCES BURNS, 1909-1997

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, on July 14, 1997 Mary Frances Burns died in 
Gallatin, MO. She was born there, a daughter of a farmer and stockman 
and a sister to four brothers and two sisters. She married Russell 
Burns in 1931 and they farmed just northwest of Gallatin all of their 
lives.
  Mom was so typical of the farm women of the American prairies. She 
was wife, partner, mother, homemaker, field hand, and gardener. She 
could coach younger girls in 4H, teach a Sunday School class, attend a 
school board meeting, cook all three of the daily meals, keep an old 
gas powered Maytag wash machine going, and still have time to play an 
active role in Democratic Party politics.
  She and her husband were married 61 years until dad died in 1992. 
They navigated this family through the droughts of the 1930's and the 
Great Depression. Yet through it all, she maintained a great sense of 
faith and humor. The times were hard in the Depression as anybody who 
lived in that era could attest. The actions and conversations of mom 
and dad were always of hope and optimism in the American dream, of the 
American system, and their dream of a better life.

[[Page S7893]]

  It was the time when America was being tested again and again was 
about to cast into a great world war. They witnessed husbands, sons, 
brothers, and a few daughters leave for war and they were there to 
welcome them home. As a family, we cried and prayed with the families 
who lost loved ones to that terrible war and we celebrated with the 
ones who came home heroes. We helped them to put their lives back 
together again and America was whole again.
  They skimped and saved and worked. Mom never had much but was never 
denied. She made a very happy home. Christmas was an orange, home made 
toy, and home made clothes. All holidays meant good cooking with a 
special little twist for her family and relation in times of 
unbelievable stress and uncertainty.
  Memories will always remain of the wonderful smells and aromas 
emanating from mother's kitchen. It was there she cooked for harvest 
and hay hands over an old wood range during the hot humid days of 
summer. Those same smells were even better after chores on a cold 
winter day.
  The badge of authority to the woman of the prairies and a true symbol 
of womanhood was the apron. It was worn everyday. It was made of 
anything from feed sacks to the finest cotton. There were those for 
everyday and those for Sunday or welcoming unexpected callers. Company 
was always welcome if at meal time, never left unfed.
  Mom could gather the eggs, pick the garden, move baby chicks and 
kittens. The apron was used to haze milk cows to the barn, run 
wandering livestock out of her garden--along with some colorful 
language--wipe the tears from a crying child, dust from a husband's 
eye, and sweat from a working brow.
  It was spotted and stained from ripe strawberries, black berries, an 
overly excited pup, and grease from a spark plug out of the old wash 
machine. It had the smells of newly picked sweet corn, fresh baked 
bread, lye soap, and once in a while, the light scent of perfume.
  She was the center of our home and was a part of a generation that 
understood love, life, and death. She understood the value of honesty 
and openness, a healthy fear and love of God, and the core values of 
the American Midwest.
  She was the daughter of this land. The soil that she loved and 
sustained her has now received her back. We are the benefactors of her 
qualities and teachings. We, as a nation, are what we are because of 
her and the millions of women like her of the American prairies. She 
was one of the silent builders of the United States of America.

                          ____________________