ToquiNotes: "Greeter" at Bridgeport High for Decades, Dixie Lamb Burner, Quietly Impacted Thousands
By Jeff Toquinto on June 17, 2023 from ToquiNotes
She was the greeter. The face of the school. The frontline, so to speak.
For decades, primarily at Bridgeport High School, she was the school’s secretary. She served as the liaison between parents and students and those needing something at the school or, many times, she served as the person to supply you with what was needed.
The person in question is Dixie Lamb Burner. And as many of you know by now, she passed away this week, on June 14 to be exact, at the age of 80.
I, like so many others, was able to get to know her in her position as secretary during my early writing days of covering Bridgeport schools exclusively. She often answered the phones and, immediately, you knew if it was her with a unique voice and an equally pleasant mannerism, particularly once she knew you.
While we will delve deeply into her professional life where she impacted thousands of youngsters first at Linden Elementary School, then Bridgeport Junior High School, and finally BHS, it would be selling Dixie Burner short just to mention her time on this earth on the work front.
The Tyler County High School graduate was a good daughter, she was a loving grandmother, a loving mother to her three children – sons Lt. Col. Curt and Joey and daughter Trudy – as well as a loving wife. As a refresher for anyone who may have forgotten, and I am betting you did not, she was the other half in the marriage to the late Larry Burner.
Larry and Dixie Burner were intertwined deeply with education in Harrison County. Larry Burner’s career, which included a long coaching and teaching run at BHS before an interruption to coach Lincoln’s football team and coach in Shinnston, also included a return to the school on Johnson Avenue where he became the athletic director.
There were no bigger fans of Bridgeport the community, Bridgeport the school, Bridgeport the sports program, and Bridgeport the people than Larry and Dixie Burner. And while people like to recall Larry as the one with the stories that could make you laugh until you cried, former BHS Principal Mark DeFazio said it was Dixie who was in charge.
DeFazio had more than just first-hand knowledge of Dixie Burner when he arrived at BHS in 1998. He had coached and taught with her husband, and they were already acquaintances when he made the journey to the school as Lindy Bennett’s assistant.
“In that school, doing what she did best, she was Dixie. And by that, let me just say, there will never be another Dixie Burner,” said DeFazio laughing. “The thing was, she had a lot of people fooled because she was often quiet away from the school, but I can assure you she was the boss.
“Even with that, Larry and she made such a great couple,” he said. “The stories I could tell you with both of them, wow, they are great and many I couldn’t repeat. They were such a good match with each other and with education.”
In the obituary that is linked below, it mentions that “one of her duties as a secretary included taking the lunch count, where she ensured every child was fed, even if she had to pay out of her own pocket.” DeFazio assured me that such a statement was not hyperbole and fell a bit short of what she would do.
“Dixie was set in her ways, and you weren’t going to change her, but knowing Dixie having such a good heart and being such a good person, why would you want to change her,” said DeFazio. “She came into contact with so many students and so many of them loved her, and they did because they knew she cared.
“A lot of people don’t know that she took care of a lot of kids; she just did things and probably never told a soul, even her family,” he continued. “If she thought a kid needed shoes, clothes, something to eat, she found a way to help and did it discretely because kids in need sometimes get embarrassed easily. I saw how she handled that, and it was masterful.”
DeFazio said his fondest memory of Dixie Burner involves coffee. And it was a fond memory whether he got it or did not get it.
“She knew I was a coffee drinker,” said DeFazio. “Every morning she would have my coffee waiting for me on my desk greeting me; well, most mornings. If it wasn’t on my desk, I knew I had made her mad.
“It got to the point where we would just laugh because I knew and she knew that I knew,” he went on. “It’s one of those things you just wouldn’t change.”
DeFazio said Dixie was one of many who handled the administrative duties of secretary. He said she set the tone for what he said continues today.
“Dixie knew exactly what to do, and often times that was to protect you and your time. As an administrator that is a valuable asset because when you come in, chances are good the first two people you see are going to be your secretaries and they determine the tone of what’s going to take place,” DeFazio said. “From the first ones I had, including Dixie, until I retired after 20 years there, I was blessed with the best secretaries. I couldn’t have asked for better. Dixie, like so many, was memorable.”
By the time DeFazio left BHS, Dixie Burner had long since retired. She retired in 2004 after roughly a quarter of a century in the same capacity.
In recent years, her health had faded. She had caregivers, including her children. DeFazio said he was “so proud” to see her son Joey, who along with his girlfriend Elizabeth Keough, step up after Larry passed away and take care of his mother.
“The entire family, all of them, is made up of good people,” DeFazio said. “I am certainly going to miss my friend Dixie. I know I am not alone. She was like Larry. If you didn’t like her, the problem was probably with you.”
Dixie Burner will be laid to rest Monday, June 19. By that time, I would like to think the greeter will be greeted by her husband Larry, perhaps with a cup of coffee.
Rest in peace Dixie. Your work here is done.
Click HERE for the obituary.
Editor’s Note: Top photo shows Dixie Burner after retiring from Bridgeport High School. The next two images show Burner with her husband Larry, including the second photo during a trip to Italy. All photos courtesy of Joey Burner.
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