Pidgion Easter Lorraine Burden

1917 - 2009

Mrs. Pidgion Easter Lorraine (Squire) (Benson) (Carr) Burden, 92, Bartlesville native and wife of Mr. William E. "Bill" Burden, passed away at 9:10 a.m. on Sunday, September 27, in the Jane Phillips Medical Center.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, October 1, in the Memory Chapel of The Arnold Moore Funeral Residence. Her pastor, Bill Spencer, of the Bluestem Baptist Church in Dewey will be the officiant. Committal prayers and interment will be directed by The Arnold Moore Funeral Service in the Memorial Park Cemetery.
Mrs. Burden will lie in state in the Drawing Rooms of The Arnold Moore Funeral Residence where family and friends may call for their visitation until the service hour on Thursday afternoon.
Pidgion Easter Lorraine Squire was born August 13, 1917 in Bartlesville, Washington County, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Harry Squire, Sr. and Sarah Elizabeth (Van Brunt) Squire. Pidgion began her education in the Bartlesville Public Schools and in July, 1934, Pidgion was united in marriage to Mr. William A. "Bill" Benson. Bill Benson was enlisted in the United States Army Air Force as a navigator. It was during a flight in the Panama Canal Zone that the plane he was navigating was struck by lightning and crashed in 1941, killing Bill Benson.
After returning to Bartlesville from Stillwater, Okla., Pidgion completed her education, graduating with the Senior Class of 1938 from the Bartlesville High School. She worked as a switchboard operator at the Burlingame Hotel and had also worked for the local Montgomery Ward Store.
Pidgion was later married to Mr. Ralph Francis "Skip" Carr in St. Louis, Missouri and had two sons, Ronald and Robert Carr. Ralph Carr worked as a Field Director for the American Red Cross during the World War II years. He worked as the Manager of Texas Auto Leasing Co. in El Paso, Texas, and it was in El Paso that Skip died on June 3, 1953 following lung surgery.
Pidgion returned to Bartlesville in 1954. On July 31, 1967, she and Mr. William Ernest "Bill" Burden were married at Tulsa, Oklahoma and they made their home in Bartlesville where Bill was an employee of the United States Postal Service.
Pidgion had been employed as a Field Director for the American Red Cross in Bartlesville for 22 years, before becoming the District Director for the American Lung Association, where she remained for five years overseeing the activities of the organization in seven Oklahoma counties.
She was a very active member of the Bluestem Baptist Church in Dewey, and a member of the Dewey VFW Post #10099 Auxiliary.
Survivors are her husband, William E. "Bill" Burden, of the Bartlesville home; two sons and daughters-in-law, Ronald T. and Roselan Carr of Glenwood Springs, Colorado and Robert G. and Kay Carr of Collinsville, Okla.; grandchildren, Jason Carr and wife, Dorothy, Darin Carr and wife, Brittany, and Jimmy Carr and wife, Angie; great-grandchildren, Lauren, Jadeyn, Landon, Ashtyn and Michael Carr; two step-daughters, Mrs. Ann Marie (Burden) Strada, New Orleans, Louisiana and Mrs. Carol (Burden) Maselli and husband, Dominic, of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and numerous step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren. Preceding her in death were her father, mother, husbands, William A. Benson and Ralph Francis "Skip" Carr; brother, Harry Squire, Jr. and a step-daughter, Aleta Marie.