Thelma Staley Burritt

Burritt—Thelma Staley Burritt, 95, on October 6, 2022, at her home in Greensboro, N.C. Thelma was born on May 4, 1927, to Thomas Raymond and Mary Ann Cox Stanley in Randolph County, N.C. She grew up on a farm with five brothers and sisters.

The farm included a house, barn, smokehouse, granary, two corn cribs, and a car shed, all made of lumber and logs cut from the surrounding woods. Thelma’s family had a woodstove and no indoor plumbing. Family members hoed corn, chopped tobacco, slopped hogs, gathered eggs, hunted rabbits, and obtained their milk from two cows. Thelma learned to count by handing her father ears of corn for the mules. When her mother was sick, Thelma dressed her younger brother, Tom, for church. She later said that this responsibility led to her taking care of her own appearance. Thelma’s mother sewed quilts of denim squares made from the family’s overalls that had grown too worn to pass down. The quilts were used for the family’s beds and, when they were too worn for that purpose, to cover crops. Nothing was wasted. Near the end of her life, Thelma would pick up one of those sturdy, soft quilts and reminisce about hayrides and about many days and nights of work and play.

After high school, Thelma moved to Greensboro and worked for the city water department. There she met Clark C. Burritt Jr. They married on October 6, 1951, and had two sons, Christopher Staley Burritt and Clark C. Burritt III. Clark and Thelma never lived far from Guilford College, and raised their boys in a home on 32 acres where Clark had grown up. Late in life, Thelma and Clark moved back to that house, and that is where Thelma died exactly 71 years from the date she and Clark married.

Thelma loved her extended family. She enjoyed shopping for old furniture and collectibles. Though she lived in Greensboro, she loved her former home in Randolph County. She and Clark restored the house and the farm buildings.

Thelma was a member of New Garden Meeting in Greensboro. She was known for her sense of beauty and often helped decorate the meetinghouse, especially at Christmas. An accomplished flower arranger, Thelma arranged beautiful flowers for the meeting and won numerous blue ribbons in garden club contests. She was a member of the Guilford College Community Civitan Club.

Thelma was predeceased by her husband, Clark Burritt Jr., in 2007; a son, Clark C. Burritt III, in 2017; and five brothers and sisters.

She is survived by one child, Christopher Staley Burritt; two grandchildren; three nieces; and two nephews.