Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2022.185.011 |
Collection |
Burnett, Lee Edward "Ed" |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Date |
1969 |
Description |
Black & white photograph measuring 10" x 8" and depicting Lee Edward "Ed" Burnett and his wife, Ruth Imogene Beals Burnett, at their home 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. Skelly employee and editor Roberta Ironside sits at the far right. 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 |
People |
Burnett, Lee Edward "Ed" Burnett, Ruth Imogene Beals Ironside, Roberta |
Place |
Tulsa, OK |