Martha Miller Burt,
MARQUETTE - Martha Miller Burt passed away on December 28, 2011 at her beloved home which her husband John and she had designed and built on the shores of Lake Superior. She was 90 years old. Born in 1921 to Dr. H. Edward and June Oehler Miller in St. Louis, Missouri, Martha attended Mary Institute there and graduated from Wellesley College. During her early years, she also attended Maison de la Harpe in Rolle and Villars, Switzerland, an adventure which ignited her lifelong love of the arts and languages. She later published a memoir of those years, Through the Mist of Time, which her daughter Emily illustrated. Martha learned to speak both French and Italian fluently and continued to speak and read in both languages throughout her life. During World War II, Martha used her talent for connecting with people from all walks of life by establishing the first Employee Service Bureau at Curtiss-Wright Corporation in St. Louis, the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States during the war. Throughout those bleak years, she helped hundreds of employees navigate the process of finding housing, transportation and ration cards in wartime St. Louis. In 1946, she married John Harris Burt, a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. They began their married life in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where John served as the chaplain at the University of Michigan. They then moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he became the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and then on to Pasadena, California, in 1957, where John continued his ministry at All Saints Episcopal Church, the largest Episcopal congregation in the western United States. When Reverend Burt was elected Bishop of Ohio in 1967, Martha quickly took to her role of “First Lady” of the Diocese of Ohio. She was known for her warmth and graciousness throughout the diocese as well as both the national and international Anglican community. She was so beloved by a local Italian-American congregation that in 1971 they successfully petitioned the Italian Government to designate her an honorary Italian citizen. Martha was also an active volunteer at Highland View Veteran’s Hospital in Cleveland for many years. Martha’s interests were diverse and deep. She was fascinated by history and had a great love of gardening and landscaping, which led her to create and cultivate an extraordinary collection of bonsai. She inherited from both her parents a strong love of and talent for music. She played the piano from an early age and throughout the years planned her Saturdays around the Metropolitan Opera broadcast. Martha was also an early, passionate advocate for the importance of exposing children to cultures other than their own. She applied this belief to her own family. Over the years, together with her husband John, she planned extensive trips every summer across the United States and throughout Europe and introduced her family to worlds as diverse as the castles of Eleanor of Aquitaine and tarpaper shacks in Alabama in the turbulent sixties. Above all, Martha was a dedicated partner to her husband of 63 years and a source of strength to their four daughters, leaving them a legacy of her graciousness toward life and her love of beauty in all things – music, art, languages and the natural world around her. She embodied the words which were written in the front of her own mother’s diary and of which she thought often: “I promise to ask myself - Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” Martha’s husband John predeceased her in 2009. She is survived by her four daughters, Susan Burt of Hillsboro, West Virginia, Emily Betinis of Amherst Junction, Wisconsin, Sarah Burt of Antrim, New Hampshire, and Mary Laird of New York City, as well as six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing her. A memorial service will be held on Friday, January 6, at 3:00 PM in the Morgan Chapel at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Audubon Society or High Rocks for Girls in Hillsboro, West Virginia, two charitable organizations which Martha held dear. The Swanson-Lundquist Funeral Home is serving the family, where condolences may be expressed online at www.swansonlundquistfuneralhome.com