Shirley Jean Williams Burris, 97, died August 20 in Jackson. She was born in Niagara Falls, in 1928 and moved to Jackson in 1934. She attended Davis (later renamed for Barack Obama), Barr, and Poindexter elementary schools; Enochs Junior High; and Central High School, where she graduated at age 16. She then attended Hinds Junior College and Belhaven College, graduating with honors. She earned a master’s degree in English at the University of Mississippi, where she met fellow graduate student Leslie E. Burris, whom she married in 1958. She taught English at Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). While there, she earned a pilot's license and enjoyed flying Cessnas as often as possible.
After their marriage, Leslie and Shirley moved to Shreveport, where their three oldest children were born, and where Shirley taught English part-time at Centenary College and Barksdale Air Force Base. In 1965, the family moved to Baton Rouge, where she began teaching English at Louisiana State University. Over the next 28 years, she not only graded thousands of handwritten college essays, but also raised four children and welcomed grandchildren.
Shirley was a member of several organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the Louisiana Folklore Society, the Baton Rouge Council on Human Relations, and the Louisiana Council on Human Relations. She also researched and wrote the book Two Centuries of the Samuel and Mary Myers Burris Family.
She was very active in the Presbyterian (USA) churches she attended throughout her life: Central Presbyterian Church in Jackson as a youth, and University Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, where she was ordained as a deacon in 1983, was elected as an elder in 1987, and served as clerk of session in 1989. She was also the recording clerk of the Presbytery of South Louisiana and served on the Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest Board for several years. After Leslie and Shirley moved to Jackson in 2008, she transferred her membership to Fondren Presbyterian Church, where she enjoyed the Odyssey Sunday School class, Wednesday night suppers, circle, and Presbyterian Women meetings. Through her last days, she continued to cherish her community—new friends from Fondren, along with friends from Baton Rouge, particularly members of their Tuesday Night Supper Club and the informal “Ol’ Girls Club,” a group of friends from her long career at LSU. After her retirement, she also served as a pulpit supply preacher at small churches in Louisiana and Mississippi. She was a self-taught theologian whose thoughtful sermons were often guided by Micah 6:8, “to do justice, to love kindly, and to walk humbly with your God.”
In Jackson, she and Leslie lived in Fondren with their daughter Lida and granddaughter Grace. After Leslie died in 2012, Shirley continued to enjoy life in her busy, multigenerational household where friends and family of all ages regularly popped in. When she wasn’t reading or working on genealogy, she could often be found in her chair next to the large front window where she worked on puzzles, watched the neighbors come and go, and provided a warm lap for her beloved cats.
Other highlights of her Jackson routine included attending History is Lunch programs at the Department of Archives and History and Music in the City at the Mississippi Museum of Art.
Shirley was preceded in death by her husband; her mother, Grace Drake Williams; her father; her aunt and uncle, Dorothy and Frank Gentry; and her beloved granddaughter, Heather Anne Burris. She is survived by her children, Jeff Burris (Cynthia) of Denham Springs, La.; Iris Burris (Doug Arnold) of Philadelphia, Pa.; Lida Key (Perry) of Jackson; and the Rev. Holly Burris of Thibodaux, La. Also surviving are her grandchildren, Sophie Brenneman Stagner (Forrest) of Altoona, Pa.; Hannah Brenneman Impellizeri (Paul) of Philadelphia; Grace Drake Gibson (Henry Person) of Austin, and Maxwell Burris Brenneman of Philadelphia. Shirley was delighted that her first great-grandchild, Leo Everett Stagner, was born in 2025 to Sophie and Forrest.
Other survivors include her son’s step-daughter, Laine Morgan, and step-great-grandsons Preston and Dylan (Astrid) Garland of Baton Rouge.
The family is grateful for the loving care, attention, and companionship provided to her by Bernice Thompson for the past several years.
A memorial service is scheduled at 11:00 a.m. on September 5, 2025, with visitation at 10:00 a.m. at Fondren Presbyterian Church, 3220 Old Canton Road in Jackson.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Fondren Presbyterian Church, the Foundation for Mississippi History, or University Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge.
