Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2022.185.025 |
Collection |
Burnett, Lee Edward "Ed" |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Date |
1969 |
Description |
Black & white photograph measuring 8" x 10" and depicting a sports car assembled by Lee Edward "Ed" Burnett of Tulsa, OK. The image shows Burnett and his wife, Ruth Imogene Beals Burnett, with the automobile at J. Fred Smith Skelly Service Station, located at 1502 South Main Street in Tulsa, OK. The photograph was taken by Skelly Oil Company for possible publication in the company's magazine "The Skelly Diamond." An article published in the May/June 1969 issue highlighted Ed Burnett's renovation of a sports car following his retirement from Skelly Oil Company on January 1, 1967. Burnett assembled the car using various parts including a 1941 Ford frame, 1969 Chevrolet engine, a Nash grill, 1948 Pontiac tail lights, 1968 Corvair bumpers, and various internal parts from Chevrolet, Ford, and Studebaker. Lee Edward "Ed" Burnett was born September 19, 1902 in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, to parents Joseph Meredith Burnett (1870-1949) and Mary Jane Clementine Wyatt Burnett (1877-1940). By 1920, Burnett lived with his mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma at 7 North Zunis Street. At the age of eighteen, he worked as a bookkeeper for an oil company. In 1923, he began his career with Skelly Oil Company, located on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors of the Unity Building, 21 West 4th Street in Tulsa. During the next forty-three years, Burnett worked in the company's controller's department as a tax accountant. He eventually became the tax unit supervisor. He retired from Skelly Oil Company on January 1, 1967. Burnett married Ruth Imogene Beals on December 1, 1926, in Tulsa. She was born in 1907. The couple had two children: Michael Edward Burnett (1939-1963) and Jan Burnett Baker. In addition to managing the family home, Ruth Burnett also worked at Douglas Aircraft Company. House Beautiful Magazine featured her photograph in September 1943 as a working wife and mother. The same year, she won a national sewing contest for her creation of a war-worker's suite of khaki, rayon, and gaberdine, complete with hat, hair snood, and utility shoulder bag for lunch box and cosmetics. She won a trip to New York, and $200.00 dollars in war bonds. The Tulsa Tribune included her photograph on the front page issue of Monday, June 7, 1943. Lee Edward Burnett died at age seventy-six on October 9, 1978 in Tulsa. He is buried in Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa. Ruth Burnett died in 1994. |
Search Terms |
Skelly Oil Company renovation projects automobiles South Main Street service stations & filling stations |
People |
Burnett, Lee Edward "Ed" Burnett, Ruth Imogene Beals |
Place |
Tulsa, OK |