Lloyd Marion Burcham

1950 - 2023

Lloyd Marion Burcham
October 24, 1950 - February 19, 2023
Bonner Springs, Kansas - My brother, Lloyd Marion Burcham, was a storyteller with a wonderful sense of humor. His stories got taller and taller as he grew older and older. Friends often described him as "a cowboy", but more often as "a character." For fourteen years he told us to be nice to him - since he was dying of prostate cancer - until it finally came true in a hospital in Kansas City, Kansas on February 19, 2023. when he was 72 years old. When he had turned 70, he commented: "I never thought I'd reach this age. I figured somebody's husband would get me first."
Lloyd was born in a doctor's office in a tiny town called King City, Missouri on October 24, 1950. Our mother was so happy to have a son, after first bearing a daughter - me: Karen Burcham-Kellen (Heidemann), and after Lloyd, two more daughters: Cheri Lynn Burcham (who died in 1979) and Janet Leigh Burcham (Curtis), that she carried Lloyd's birth photo - in the full monty- around in her wallet for years. Our father, Roy Marion Burcham, passed away in 1986.
Lloyd would have wanted you to think of him as "a man's man". He grew up in Bonner Springs, Kansas. At Bonner Springs High School he played football his freshman year. His sophomore year he took scuba diving lessons in a swimming pool in Kansas City - miles from any ocean. His senior year he was voted vice president of his 1968 class. He reported that job to be a perfect fit for him, since it entailed doing nothing, unless the president wasn't around.
After graduation, Lloyd tried a year of college at Pittsburg, Kansas; but he gave it up, saying: "my mind was more geared to girls, pizza, and beer." So, in November of 1969 he enlisted in the army. By then he had married his high school sweetheart, Mary Goble (who died in 1991), and had his only child, Brandon. Brandon provided Lloyd with three grandkids: Kiersten (who gave him a great-grandson: George), and grandkids: Brekken and Ryker.
Lloyd described basic training in South Carolina as "eight weeks of really short haircuts and constantly being yelled at". After basic training, Lloyd went to Kentucky for armor training and NCOS. Later, he went to Fort Benning for airborne school. It was a bit ironic that he was then sent to Fort "Bragg", North Carolina. He stayed there, never being sent to Vietnam; but reported on Facebook that he had served in the "U.S. Army Elite 82nd Airborne."
After his Army tour of duty was over, so was his marriage. Looking for some sort of career, Lloyd worked briefly for the Kansas University Medical Center taking photographs. He had developed this interest in high school, while working on the school newspaper and the annual. But, doing only one job or living only in one place was never enough to hold his interest. He attempted college again at Kansas City, Kansas Community College, and after moving to Colorado, at community colleges in Aurora and Denver.
He would love Colorado and live there for much of his life, spending time in Glenwood Springs, Aurora, Denver, Carbondale, Englewood, and Golden, Colorado. Along the way, he met and married and divorced his second wife, Paula. Jobs were changed as frequently as towns and girlfriends. He lived with a couple of these girlfriends in Colorado and more recently in Kansas, sometimes claiming he was married to them.
Lloyd received training in heating and air conditioning; and this morphed into a "degree in environmental tech" on his Facebook page. For several years he worked as a house painter. After many years of hard working and hard drinking he finally solidified his cowboy mentality into the perfect job. He became a trail guide on a dude ranch. He cooked steaks and beans and made a mean cornbread for his tenderfoots. He laughingly told one story of leading a line of horseback riders on the trail. He was so comfortable on his horse; and his horse was so familiar with the trail, that Lloyd started dozing. He leaned farther and farther to the side of his saddle and finally fell off.
Only Lloyd's pride was hurt when he fell off the horse. He had experienced much more trauma when he entered a senior age Professional Bull Riding (PBR) competition. The bull threw him off within three seconds; and Lloyd spent the rest of the evening with a bottle of whiskey and an EMT stitching a cut on his forehead.
The fall from the dude ranch horse caused Lloyd to finally see a physician when his aches and pains did not go away. It was then that he discovered the prostate cancer was in his bones. Lloyd decided to retire and to return to his hometown of Bonner Springs. Lloyd lived in the present, never worrying about what he'd done in the past, nor worrying about planning for the future. He never had much money; but, he was generous with his time. In October of 2017 he organized a charitable trip to Texas after that state's devastating hurricane. He took donations for dogs, and other animals affected by the storm, and drove those supplies from Kansas to Texas. He also supported the Wounded Warrior Project.
Lloyd never wanted anyone to make a fuss over him. He discharged a couple of hospice companies that tried to help him - sticking the longest with a company that had sent out a pretty nurse. Lloyd asked that no funeral or memorial be held for him. He will be cremated; and his ashes will be buried at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery under a timeline that Lloyd followed during his life: slow and easy. Happy trails, dear brother.