Obituary of Virginia Coward Burkhart, 1970:
Services held Wednesday. Mrs. Burkhart dies; one of pioneer family. Death this week claimed another member of a prominent Anderson County family. Mrs. Virginia (Virgie) Coward Burkhart, 73, who died at 10 a.m. Monday in St. Mary’s Hospital after a stroke.
Between the time Mrs. Burkhart sustained her first stroke on Dec. 26, 1960 and her death, eight of her eleven brothers and sisters had died. She overcame to a large degree the effects of the first stroke and continued to enjoy life until she was felled a second time March 4, 1970. She had been unconscious in St. Mary’s since then.
The daughter of John and Margaret Worthington Coward, members of pioneer Anderson County families, she was known as one of Clinton’s finest cooks. Until her first stroke, she and her husband James M. (Mack) Burkhart enjoyed entertaining and traveling. They also delighted in their home on College Hill, overlooking Clinton, where Mrs. Burkhart always had flowers.
Mrs. Burkhart was graduated from Clinton High School and immediately began to teach school, as most high school graduates did in her day. She walked from the family home on the corner of Lamar and Marshall Sts. to Shinliver Springs School (now Shinliver Elementary School). At one time she taught at schools in Madisonville, Tenn. and later, after her marriage, in Kentucky schools where she and her husband made their home for several years prior to Jan 1, 1933. At that time they moved back to Clinton when Mr. Burkhart purchased Clinton Hardware Co., Inc. They were married June 8, 1922.
Mrs. Burkhart was a longtime member of the Timely Topics Club, of Garden Study Group 1 and of Memorial United Methodist Church.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Burkhart is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Chester Brent of Greeneville, and two grandsons: two sisters, Mrs. Bryan Till of Elza Drive, Oak Ridge, and Mrs. B. S. Johnson of Knoxville.
Funeral services were held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Memorial United Methodist Church with the Rev. G. Wayne Cummings officiating. Burial was in Sunset Cemetery.
Clinton Courier-News, March 26, 1970, Sec. 1, page 6.
[Transcribed by Stephanie A. Hill from a photocopy of the microfilm in the genealogy vertical files at the Lake City Library.]