Marie Burns Powell

February 28, 1923 - July 20, 2013

Olga Marie Burns Powell, 90, passed away Saturday, July 20, 2013, at United Hospital Center, Bridgeport, WV. She was born on February 28, 1923, in Grove (Doddridge County), West Virginia, daughter of Samuel Ellsworth Burns and Iona Rexroad Burns. She is survived by her three children and their families: William David Powell and Judy Mize of Washington, D.C., Jana Powell, her husband Peter Pompei, sons Samuel Taylor and Philip Adam Pompei, Los Altos, California, Mary Beth Powell, her husband Bill Rote, and daughter Alyssa Marie Prete of Carrboro, North Carolina. She is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews and their families. She was preceded in death by her husband William Roy “Bill” Powell in 1978, after celebrating 30 years of marriage, a daughter Connie Ann, and companion Forest “Bus” Douglass of Salem, WV. Marie graduated from Lost Creek High School in 1941 and Salem College in 1945 with an A.B. degree in Commerce and Physical Education. At Salem College, Marie was voted Tigress and the first-ever female Student Body President (1945). Upon graduation Marie was the first recreation director at the Salem Industrial Home for Girls, and then a business studies and physical education teacher, first at Salem High School and later at Bristol High School and Liberty High School until her retirement in 1983. She was an officer in the Order of the Eastern Star, a long-time teacher of the Salem Baptist Church Broadwater Sunday School Class and the first woman on the Salem Baptist Church Board of Deacons. She helped restore the Salem Garden Club, was a founder of Lake Floyd Golf Club, active in the Lake Floyd Woman’s Club and supporter of Green Hill Methodist Church, on the Burns family farm near Ireland, WV. In her retirement she also served as a volunteer at United Hospital Center in the surgical waiting room. Orphaned at an early age, Marie was raised by aunts and uncles in her extended family of Methodist ministers, in various parsonages in Harrison County, and by her eldest brother William Reece Burns who brought his siblings back together as a young minister. Her interests in life were people, how she could encourage them, support them, comfort them, cheer them on. Like her roadside wild flowers, she found her JOY in her beloved West Virginia Hills, and knew by heart all four verses of that song. She had a deep and powerful faith in God. She was grateful to visit the British Isles, Ireland, many countries in Europe and around the Mediterranean, and, especially, the Holy Land. A memorial service will be conducted in the Salem Baptist Church Main St. Salem on Saturday, July 27, 2013 at 1:00PM with Pastor Joel Harpold and Pastor Roger Fontaine presiding, followed by a reception at the church. Expressions of sympathy may be extended to the family at www.harbertfuneralhome.com. Harbert Funeral Home is privileged to serve the Powell family. In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Marie may be made to Salem Baptist Church, P.O. Box 43, Salem, WV 26426, to Fort New Salem, P.O. Box 186, Salem, WV 26426, or to Salem International University, 223 W. Main St Salem, WV 26426.