Marilu Grace Burns

Marilu Grace Burns, beloved wife, mother, sister, and grandmother, passed away on March 20, 2023. Marilu, 80, was an extraordinarily kind, thoughtful, joyful person who loved Jesus, and her family, and making friends everywhere she went.  She was an artist, who loved painting and fashion design. Later she enjoyed making life beautiful for the people she loved and everyone she encountered.

Marilu was born on Jan. 29, 1943, in Wichita Falls, Texas to Luke and Mariella Grace.  She was born with a cleft lip and palate and would undergo more than 18 surgeries throughout her childhood.  She would say that this experience was what made her a compassionate person.  She understood the suffering of others and would do anything in her power to alleviate it.  Also, growing up looking “different” gave her a great concern to always make sure other people felt included and no one was overlooked.

After Marilu, her parents had another daughter, Joanne, and a son, Lee.  Sadly, Joanne passed away at 14 after a horseback riding accident.  Marilu’s father, Luke, died in 1989 from cancer, and her mother died in 2003.  Marilu has been greatly looking forward to being reunited with them in heaven, especially with her sister who she has waited so long to see again.

Marilu graduated from the University of Texas, where she majored in art.  During her time in college, she was invited by a good friend to accompany her on a six-week trip around the world!  She traveled to such places as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rangoon, and Istanbul.  She saw the pyramids of Giza and the Louvre in Paris.  After college, she attended Parsons School of Design in New York City, studying to become a fashion designer.  She loved her years living in New York as a young single woman.  After graduate school, she returned to Dallas where she worked as a designer for a clothing company.

In 1978, she moved to Lubbock, Texas to teach courses related to clothing and textiles at Texas Tech’s College of Home Economics.  It was there that she met Dr. Jim Burns.  They married on March 17, 1979.  Marilu gave birth to their first daughter, Marianne on Jan. 11, 1981.  Her second daughter, Rebekah, was born on July 27, 1983.

As she was raising her daughters, Marilu switched career paths to elementary education so that her vacation dates would line up with her daughters’ days off school.  Marilu was a loving and dedicated mother.  Her daughters remember her often staying up late with them to help them finish school projects.  She coached their Odyssey-of-the-Mind teams.  She was very involved and supportive in everything her daughters were involved in.

Marilu loved watching sports.  Her favorites were college football and basketball, but she also enjoyed watching all the major golf tournaments and the occasional baseball game as well.  Her family remembers how emotionally involved she would get when watching a game she cared about, sometimes having to step out of the room or threaten to turn off the TV if things got too close at the end of the game, claiming she could not handle watching a team she loved lose.

Marilu also loved to laugh.  No one made her laugh more than her sons-in-law, Josh and David.  They could get her laughing so hard that she stopped making any sound and we worried that she couldn’t breathe.  Her sons-in-law were truly the sons she never had but always wanted.

She was also deeply involved with her church, Melonie Park, and volunteered with the Gideons where she passed out hundreds of Bibles and Testaments over the years.  For the last several years she was also very committed to her Friday morning prayer group, where she and several other ladies would lift up any prayer requests, they were sent or heard about, interceding for friends, family, and even strangers across the globe. For more than 10 years, she enjoyed Community Bible Study, where she studied nearly all of the books of the Bible.

The highlight of her later years, of course, came in the form of her grandchildren – Sarah, Everett, Emily, Ruthie, and Leo.  Her daughters’ married lives took them to St, Louis, MO and Salt Lake City, UT.  Marilu was very committed to traveling up to see their families on holidays and all her grandchildren’s birthdays.  She loved reading to her grandkids, going swimming together, and snuggles.

Marilu’s health took a turn for the worse in the past several years, and she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  She also suffered several strokes.  Her last few years were spent living at Legacy of the South Plains assisted living.  She made many friends there among residents and staff, and she was known as “Mama Marilu.”

She is survived by her husband, Jim; her brother Lee Grace (Jackie); her daughters Marianne Dean (David) and Becky Rosenthal (Josh); and her grandchildren.  She will be deeply missed, but all are comforted knowing that her physical suffering is finished, and she is reunited with many beloved family members and friends in heaven.

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