Ronald E. Burke loved Alexandria, Virginia, where he had deep roots. His father shared many stories of his childhood with Ronald, and Ronald spent many of his summers living with relatives in Alexandria. He shared his father’s stories with me about Alexandria and the relatives that he met. His voice became lively as he talked about his cousin, Harry Burke, and his great aunt, Sarah Nash Burke.
For a New Yorker, he identified himself as an Alexandrian. His father made sure that his children would always know that they were Alexandrians. Their vacations and holidays were spent in Alexandria with family and friends.
Ronald was born in New York. The parents migrated from Alexandria, Virginia, to New York, where Ronald and his brother Roscoe were born — other four siblings were born in Alexandria. His parents were Robert Webster Burke and Edith Russell Burke. His siblings were Robert Webster Burke, Jr., Lillian Burke Maclin, Russell Hollinger Burke, Wendell Arthur Burke, and Roscoe Burke. All of them are deceased.
Ronald had an adventurous life. He spent twenty years in the civil rights movement with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in Illinois. He worked in manufacturing, allowing him to travel and live in Nigeria, West Africa, for three years. Before his wife, Annette Chin Burke’s, death, they had been married for about 68 years.
In his retirement, he and his wife moved to Charlotte, NC, to be close to their children, Ronald Burke Jr. and Robin Burke Winkfield, and their grandchildren, Ronald Burke III and Aundrea Burke.
Besides his career, he retired as a Baptist minister with forty years of service.
On December 27, 2024, Mr. Ronald E. Burke died. His life’s work overseas and in the civil rights movement are examples he left behind for us to learn from.
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