Winston Burton

Winston Burton was one of a kind

By Roy Ockert Jr.

Sept. 27, 2012

About 15 or 20 years ago his colleagues at the Southwest Church of Christ, fearing that Winston Burton wasn’t going to live much longer, decided they should honor him with a “roast.” He had, in fact, suggested to them that he wouldn’t be around long.

So they did, and he loved every minute of it, which he always did when he was the center of attention.

But he kept on going and going, like the Energizer bunny, as Southwest’s preaching minister, Jimmy Adcox, described him. That was one of many delightful stories told about the church’s classic seniors minister at his funeral last week.

Winston Burton was 88 when he died on Wednesday, Sept. 19, and in those extra 15 or 20 years after his roast he managed to inspire and influence many more people who came to him for counseling, advice and-or friendship.

Normally, when a person lives that long, the funeral doesn’t draw a big crowd. After all, Winston outlived many of his friends and family members. However, the huge Southwest sanctuary was almost half full for the service, and many others came for the preceding 2-hour visitation.

That so many of those coming to honor him were less than half his age says a lot about how many lives he touched in nearly 70 years as a minister and counselor.

Adcox said that in recent years Winston suggested often that he wasn’t sure he was any help and that perhaps should be taken off the Southwest church payroll. But staff members knew better and begged him to stay on. “Just be who you are,” they’d say.

He also recalled Winston’s habit of coming in late for staff meeting, “just so all of us would know he was there,” and then waiting until the end of the meeting to pose an open-ended question that would keep everyone engaged longer.

“Even when he had heart and lung problems ..., he’d go to St. Bernards and visit patients,” he said. “It was hard to know how he could keep going.”

That’s the Winston Burton I knew, too, as a fellow member of the Kiwanis Club of Jonesboro, one of his many passions.

Although he had finally retired from the club a year or so earlier, I suggested that our program chairman, Philip Jones, when he was trying to come up with a program in connection with the local club’s 77th anniversary on Aug. 1, to call Winston. He had done the definitive club history, and I knew that he’d love to do it if he could.

Of course, he did, dragging his oxygen tank with him. As he began, he apologized in case his voice wasn’t as strong as usual (it was) or he had a coughing spell (he didn’t). For 25 or 30 minutes he regaled members young and old with stories about the club’s history, his own experiences and his fondness for Kiwanis. In between, as always, he bantered with members of the audience.

You could have closed your eyes and not known the speaker was a man near the end of a long, productive life. My only regret is that we didn’t record the program because we won’t be able to hear it again.

Winston was one of the men who made the local Kiwanis club a strong one. Until health failed him, he was always there and quick to volunteer for whatever was needed. He was the best person imaginable to take up money at the door for our annual Pancake Day fund-raiser.

He served as president in 1990-91 and on the board of directors several times, not only when he was an officer but afterward when someone left an unexpired term. He also took two turns as lieutenant governor of Division 16 in the Missouri-Arkansas District, the second one when he was about 80 years old and no younger members came forward to fill the need.

Although he was an outstanding leader, he also was quick to take on the work of a follower. He volunteered in the Friends of the Library bookshop until weeks before his death and stopped only because he was having trouble getting to and from the library.

Those who knew him will remember especially his mischievous smile and sparkling eyes. He dealt with the problems of those who came to him for counseling with good humor but also serious resolve, and he was an uncommonly good listener.

A voracious reader, he was also a vault of information, and he had an easy way of relating to people of all ages.

He planned his own funeral and chose this biblical passage for the back of the program:

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

—2 Timothy 4: 6-8 (NIV)

Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun and an independent columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.