Lavinia B. (Murfree) Burton's Death Notice, 1881

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

This is yet another elusive woman's death notice from the late nineteenth century. Finding this one has been an ongoing challenge. The kicker is that I stumbled over it accidentally while running a search for Col. Robert Burton. 

This is an obituary for Col. Robert Burton's daughter-in-law, Lavinia B. (Murfree) Burton, who died on 22 January 1881 in Smithville, Bullit County, Kentucky at the age of 85. Other keywords that ought to work in a search for this obituary are "L. B. Burton," "Jno. W. Burton," "J. E. Carter," and "Hutchings G. Burton." 

Notice that Lavinia (Murfree) Burton's own identity is subsumed by the men in her life: her son, John W. Burton; her son-in-law, J. E. Carter; her father-in-law, Col. Robert Burton; and her husband's first cousin, Governor Hutchins Gordon Burton. Noticeably missing are people more closely connected to her: her husband, F. N. W. Burton aka Francis Nash Williams Burton; and her own father, Col. Hardy Burton, also of the Revolution. At least, her own initials are used - L. B. Burton. Relentless searches for Lavinia Burton's death notice or obituary have resulted in nothing over the years. Notice in this death notice that The Wilmington Morning Star added the notation that Lavenia was the daughter-in-law of Col. Robert Burton. I am curious as to how they connected the dots between the two. This death notice also contains the hint that the original was published in the Tarboro Southerner. 

A search through a North Carolina newspaper database turned up the original version in the Tarborough Southerner, which is minus the notation that she was Col. Robert Burton's daughter-in-law.