Charlotte Haynes Burgner
Charlotte Haynes Burgner, 101, a proud member of America’s Greatest Generation, died March 5, 2024 of complications from two recent falls. (NOTE: Mom insisted her obituary read that “died”. She didn’t want to “pass away,” “ride a rainbow” or receive angel wings. “Just say I died.”) She was the younger of two daughters (little sister to the late Mary Worley) born to the late Edgar Leighton Haynes and Margaret (Madge) Lydia Boring Haynes.
Charlotte was born at home on August 6, 1922, in Greeneville, TN. She was always quick to point out that every state in the US had a Greeneville, but only Tennessee had a Greeneville with four e’s. “All the others were named after the color, but Tennessee’s was named after Revolutionary War General Nathanial Greene, “Greeneville.” She would often reminisce about her happy childhood in Greeneville, such a happy place in which to grow up. She enjoyed school and the town library. She was an avid reader, often sharing library books like Gone with the Wind with her parents. She especially enjoyed First Presbyterian Church there and a girls’ summer camp she attended nearby in North Carolina.
Her family moved to Chattanooga when she began high school. She graduated from Chattanooga High School, class of 1940. She took business courses for a year at the University of Chattanooga and then worked as a typist for Chattanooga Wheelbarrow Company and later, TVA.
She married the late LTC Robert William (Bob) Burgner and was the mother of four children: Mary (Grady) Wade of Chattanooga, Grady (Paula) Burgner of Chattanooga, Margaret (the late Bill) Barber of Auburn, AL, and Elizabeth (Cliff) Burgner-Brown of Alpharetta, GA. Along with her children she is survived by 8 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-greatgrandchildren. She raised 3 of her children while Bob was training in Alaska and accompanied him to duty stations in Oklahoma, Kobe and Tokyo, Japan, and then all 4 of the children in Texas. She and the family lived in Brainerd during Bob’s tour of duty in Korea in the early 1960s Bob’s last duty assignment was as a US Army advisor to the Tennessee National Guard. They bought a house in Brainerd, “201,” where she lived for 57 years. Despite the military life and travel, she always considered herself a “Brainerd girl.”
Charlotte was very active before, during and after her life as an Army wife. Always a reader, she was active in book clubs. A life-long Presbyterian and member of Second Presbyterian Church, she was active in church life everywhere the family went, often as an officer in Presbyterian Women’s groups. On the different military bases, her excellent typing skills often found her working in various base offices. She always enjoyed a good game of Bridge. And once in a while, she enjoyed a good, dry, dirty martini with extra olives. She was also active in the lives of her children – music lessons, scouting, school volunteering, and team support. After Bob’s retirement she enjoyed working as a secretary at Seaboard Allied Milling Corporation in Chattanooga and being a Girl Scout leader for a Brainerd troop in the Moccasin Bend chapter of GSA. She and Bob enjoyed camping, and their RV camper was often on the road to the Great Smokey Mountains, Florida’s beaches, bowl games and elsewhere. She enjoyed swimming and exercising at the Downtown YMCA. For years she delivered “Meals on Wheels” to those in need until she was 94 when she fell in her yard creating a spiral fracture of her right femur. That finally began to slow her down some, but not enough to stop her from enjoying a big 95-year birthday party at “201” and an even bigger 100-yearold birthday party at Hickory Valley Retirement.
A Celebration of Charlotte’s Life will be held at 2nd Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, 700 Pine Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402, on Monday March 11, 2024 at 11:30 am with Rev. Cathy Meyer officiating. The family will receive friends prior to the service at the church beginning at 10:00 am. She will be laid to rest alongside her beloved husband, Bob in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Flowers are welcomed, but memorial gifts to Second Presbyterian Church’s Women of the Church or to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank might be more appropriate and certainly appreciated.
Please share your thoughts and memories at www.ChattanoogaEastChapel.com
Chattanooga Funeral Home East Chapel, 404 S. Moore Rd., East Ridge, TN., has been entrusted with the arrangem e n t s .