heads of departments and others to make certain they were getting the proper research and training.
“ I’ ve been interviewing and talking with people for a long time,” she said.
She said her job initially required her to live in Seattle where her boss and his office were located. It was eventually decided she could live anywhere. With the opportunity to live in a place of her choosing, Burkett decided to build a home on a piece of property in Mixon that she inherited from her mother.
Burkett lived in Pensacola Florida from third grade through high school graduation, due to her father’ s job with Chemstrand Corporation. She spent her summers, however, in Mixon.
“ I always used to tell people I had two homes – Pensacola and Mixon,” she said.
In 2000, while still traveling the country for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Burkett began her July Fourth quilt shows.
“ From 2000 to 2008, I was traveling like a crazy person and had a weekend antique business and a Fourth of July quilt show,” she said.“ All these people, thank goodness, were coming from all over Louisiana and Texas to come to my quilt show once the word got out.”
Burkett said Jane Pirtle and Mary Taylor, both members of
Deborah Burkett shows one of several paintings depicting the life of the Caddo Indians that are in the possession of the Cherokee County Historical Commission.
the Cherokee County Historical Commission, would attend the quilt shows and tell her she should join the commission.
“ They were planting those seeds,” she said.
In 2008, she collected her final paycheck, joining the Cherokee County Historical Commission later that year.
Burkett insists on telling people that there are 15 people on the commission, all of whom contribute to the work of preserving Cherokee County history.
Aside from her own work with the commission, Burkett enjoys gardening and loves to travel.
“ My grandmother was very instrumental in me loving plants and flowers,” she said.
Her travels include multiple trips to England, as well as visits to Egypt and to Italy. One place she hasn’ t been, but would like to visit, is Machu Picchu.
Burkett also enjoys photography and even has a dark room on her property. She said at family reunions she was always the little girl with the Kodak.
“ I camped out in Arizona and New Mexico with a famous photographer. This is when I was traveling and would go out west and meet all these people via my job,” she said.“ He flew to Mixon and helped me design my dark room.
“ Now it’ s a store room because you do everything on the computer. But I learned all the ins and outs of the old dark room techniques in black and white and loved it. I’ ve learned how to do hand-tinting with a famous man from Tyler – Tom Sweeney – who did all the Rose Queen photographs.”
She makes a conscientious effort to include pictures in the books she’ s authored.
“ My books are always filled with images,” she said.“ I have had, over the last 10 or 15 years, multiple people say to me that they love my books because they have pictures.”
After preserving the stories of so many others Burkett, who has no children, was asked what she would like her own legacy to be.
“ I want to be remembered as somebody who helped people save their stories,” she said.
Spring 2025 | Jacksonville Progress 25