Melvin "Red" E. Burke

Melvin E. "Red" Burke

Services for Melvin E. "Red" Burke, 69, were Nov. 9, 1996, in Fontana, Calif.

Burke, a former Wyoming resident, died Nov. 3 at his home in Bloomington, Calif., of lung cancer. Burial was in Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, Calif. He was born May 9, 1927, in Harrison, Neb., to John O. and Caroline A. (Geike) Burke. He grew up and received his education in the Whitman community. He was a World War II veteran, serving in the U.S. Cavalry in Fort Riley, Kan. He cared for the horses and mules of his battalion. As a young man, he worked on various ranches around the country including the Percival ranch at Hat Creek and the Ollie Seaman ranch in Sioux County, Neb.

He married Cecile Steele in 1950 in Harrison. They lived on a ranch south of Harrison for three years. They then moved to Fontana, where he became a dry wall hanger. In 1963, they moved to Bloomington, where he became a self-employed horse shoer which he continued to do until the late 1980s when an accident in which a horse fell on him forced him to retire.

Survivors include his wife, Cecile; sons Michael of San Bernadino, Calif., Edward of Bloomington, Timothy of Jennings, Okla., and Mar of Fairfield, Calif.; daughter Catherine Bocanegra of Murreita, Calif.; sisters Edna Freeland of Rye, Colo., and Mamie Klitzke of Kenosha, Wisc.; brothers John Burke of Lusk and Donald of Casper; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; son Clyde; sisters Blanche Wise and Nellie Wilkison; and brother Clarence.

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