Joan Bachman Burrell

At some point in all children's academic lives there comes a time when they are asked to write an essay about a person they admire. The following is the culmination of three children's accounts about one remarkable woman. My mother had her hands full raising three kids as a single mother especially a teenage daughter who knew everything and didn't hold back from telling her so. It wasn't until I went to college that I began to realize just how much she taught me how much I respected her and how much her opinion meant to me. Although we don't say the words "I love you" to each other very often I hope she knows just how much she means to me. I've grown to love and respect my mother more and more as each year passes. --Kelly Burrell Multach

I realize it's usually parents who stand back look at their children's accomplishments and beam with pride; however I'd like to take this opportunity to turn that around and tell you why I'm proud of my mother and why I love admire and respect her more than anyone I know. As a single mother she more than capably raised three children teaching them responsibility compassion and respect for others -- not to mention manners and proper English. Professionally in the last 20 years she has gone from a home economics major who hadn't worked outside the home in years to the first female vice president in First National Bank's history. But above and beyond the significant accomplishments are the "little" things she's done. Although we didn't have a lot of extra money growing up she always found a way to pay for gymnastics ice skating and tennis lessons two weeks at horse camp or a "needed" pair of Calvin Klein jeans. She always found time to drive a weekly leg of the 6:00 a.m. junior high basketball car pool build from scratch a state of the art rabbit hutch or carve out a plot in the backyard for a 4-H vegetable garden. Once while I stood in awe my mom took apart a suit jacket lining and lengthened the sleeves and put it all back together without missing a stitch. I turned to her friend and said, "I'll never be a mom; I just can't do things like that." Her friend replied, "Amy, I am a mom and I can't do things like that. Your mom is one of a kind." No truer words were ever spoken.--Amy Burrell

My mother means more to me than I have even now come to realize. Being one of three children and the only son to a single mother she did not have a lot of free time to give while we were growing up. But she was always without question at every important moment in my life. And although I rarely acknowledged her presence at the time it meant more to me than she could ever know. I love my mother for the time she did spend with all of us. And if it matters now I am grateful she was there.--Tim Burrell

It is for these and many other reasons that we honor Joan Bachman Burrell, the best mother there is.

Submitted 7/1/96