Former Blair Woman Died at 101 Years

Mrs. John Burnett, the former Jean Cruickshank, a Wyoming resident since 1900, died recently at a nursing home in Laramie where she had lived for the past year and a half. She was 101 years of age, and unable to walk for some years, was mentally alert, had excellent hearing and was a most interesting conversationalist until just recently.

She was born May 18, 1867 in Aberdeen, Scotland, and came to this country with her parents, James and Isabella, and several sisters and brothers, when she was five years old. They settled south of Blair on what became known as the Cruickshank farm, where more brothers and sisters were born. There were thirteen children, of whom she was one of the eldest, and she survived them all. Her sister Dollie Cruickshank Moore, (Mrs. Sherry Moore) mother of Ruth, (Mrs. Tom Blanchard of Blair) and Mary, (Mrs. I. L. Tilden of Honolulu, Hawaii) preceded her in death on April 23, 1945.

She became a registered nurse in Minneapolis, Minn. In Omaha, on October 5, 1900 she married John S. Burnett, and they moved to Wyoming where they lived on their ranch, the XT, for almost 50 years before retiring and moving to Medicine Bow.

She served as post mistress at Little Medicine, Wyoming, from March 31, 1926 to March 31, 1961. She received a commemorative plaque from the then Post Master General Lawrence O’Brian and President Lyndon Johnson on her 100th birthday.

Her husband passed away in May, 1954,. She is survived by her nephew Edwin Cruickshank of Medicine Bow, whom she helped to raise, by the afore-mentioned nieces, Ruth and Mary, and numerous other nieces and nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews and some great grand nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were held at the Stryker Mortuary in Laramie, and burial was in the family plot in the Laramie Cemetery.

Find a Grave # 21913986

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~