Beatrice Burns

Beatrice Majors Van Vleet Burns (February 2, 1906 – February 28, 1988) was the First Lady of Hawaii for three terms. Born in Oregon and raised in numerous states, she became a registered nurse, joined the United States Army Nurse Corps, and moved to Hawaii. She met Hawaii's future governor John A. Burns during a picnic at Hanauma Bay, when he was a college student. Together they had four children, one of whom was born premature and died when she was struck by poliomyelitis. She never fully recovered from her paralysis, but lived a full life as a wife and mother. While First Lady of Hawaii, she restored the governor's residence of Washington Place. Early life and marriage She was born February 20, 1906, in Sumpter, Oregon, to teachers Thomas Stanton Van Fleet and Bessie Majors. The family moved dozens of times throughout California, Oregon, and Nevada. After training as a registered nurse at the San Jose Hospital School of Nursing, she joined the United States Army Nurse Corps and was assigned to Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco, before being transferred to Schofield Barracks on Oahu in 1930. John A. Burns (Jack) was a student at the University of Hawaii with a night switchboard job at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Their first date was a group picnic at Hanauma Bay. Afterwards, they continued dating, eventually deciding to marry. He dropped out of college and left the newspaper to take a better-paying job with the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. They married at Schofield Barracks on June 8, 1931. She was a lieutenant at the time. When the Great Depression affected jobs at the pineapple cannery, they joined her parents working on a farm in Mendocino County, California. They returned to Hawaii in 1932, with Jack working at another cannery, eventually joining the Honolulu Police Department. Their first child, John Jr. (Jack Jr.), was born in 1932, followed by a daughter, Mary Beth, in 1934.