Elizabeth Burgess

Elizabeth Eldridge Burgess was born July 15, 1907 in Louisville, KY & died of natural causes June 8, 2013 in Springfield, MO. She is survived by son Alan & his wife Doris of San Jose, CA. In June 350 years ago the 90 passenger Spotted Cow arrived in New Amsterdam (now NYC) carrying Jerome Boucquet, his wife & 5 children. Jerome was a French Huguenot weaver who had lived for 20 years in Holland after fleeing wars in France. For eight generations descendants lived in Manhattan & Brooklyn as the name evolved to Bokee. Elizabeth’s father, David A. Bokee, was orphaned in his first year & with his
four sisters adopted by his aunt, Abbie Eldridge. Mr. Eldridge was involved in various losing coal & salt mining ventures & moved the family to Erie, PA & Louisville, KY.

Elizabeth’s father, renamed Karl Eldridge, met her mother, Lillian Mc Cloud, while selling insurance policies to Mc Cloud Millinery employees. The Mc Clouds
came from Dublin, Ireland in the mid-1800s & settled in Louisville. Elizabeth grew up Louisville, but went to high school in Cincinnati after the family moved there. After finishing secretarial school, she won a job with a small company providing fund raising lunches for non-profits by finding opening day base-
ball tickets for the owner. Later while on vacation in Louisville, an uncle provided a number of blind dates. One was with a GMAC auditor, Ferd Burgess, who began there when it was a 4 year old start-up. A romance began, delayed when Ferd was sent to Argentina, & they married in 1930. A month later Karl Eldridge suddenly died & Ferd became responsible for a mother-in-law & younger brother-in-law all living together in St. Louis. They lived in Mexico City for 6 months. Ferd continued to travel & Elizabeth often went with him even after a son was born. During WW2 they lived in Detroit. After the war they returned to St. Louis, bought their first house & Ferd quit traveling. In 1953 he was promoted & they moved to Springfield, MO.

Elizabeth was active in garden club & was state treasurer & coordinated the state Convention in Springfield. She also volunteered at St. John’s Hospital, was a member of an art museum study group & belonged to several bridge groups. At times she was burdened with the care of an elderly mother, the unexpected arrival of her brother from various international construction sites & the difficulty of losing excess weight.

She loved birds & flowers & especially liked to visit Maui with her family.

Funeral mass will be at 10 am Wednesday June 12, 2013 in St. Agnes Chapel 533 S. Jefferson Springfield, Missouri with Fr. Mike McDevitt celebrant. Burial will follow in Maple Park Cemetery under the care of Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home. No visitation is planned.
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