Burke-70 Years
Gwen and Howard Burke will be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary at Camp Burke in Packwood, Washington.Howard Burke and Guinneveare Nance were married July 3, 1945 in Ellensburg. They got married when Howard returned from the South Pacific and was told “no more war for you.” He was a survivor of a kamikaze attack on his ship “The U.S.S. Sangamon.” He came home and asked her daddy for her hand. That’s when their 70 year journey began and still hasn’t ended … yet.They met at Wide Hollow Grade School in 1937.
Following a discharge from the U.S. Navy, Howard and Gwen settled in “Harwood” in West Valley, Yakima. Howard worked in the orchards for Paul and Verscel Williams, his sister and brother-in-law.In 1947 Howard got a job at the Hanford Reservation where he worked for seven years until 1955. He then got a job at a sheet metal shop in Ellensburg. Soon thereafter, he and Gwen, Dwight Bradshaw and his wife, Bernice founded Brad & Burke Sheet Metal. There they worked for the next 25 years raising their family and educating them in the Ellensburg School District and Central Washington State College.Howard and Gwen sold their shop in 1978 and retired in “Harwood.”
Over the next ten years they went on many motor home trips covering a large portion of United States. After ten years of traveling they decided that’s enough and sold the motor home. In 1997 they bought a retirement cabin at High Valley Country Club in Packwood, Washington where they founded “Camp Burke.” In 2012, Howard contacted bladder and kidney cancer forcing them to move into an assisted living community, which they love and feel well cared for, called Brookdale at Englewood Heights 3710 Kern Road, Yakima, Washington. Apt#318, home phone: 509-966-6402.
Howard and Gwen recently bought another motor home and have it parked at Camp Burke where they attend any family functions possible. They have been blessed with three children, grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, three great-great grandchildren, six step-grandchildren and 11 step-great grandchildren.The family celebration will be hosted by their three children, Dan (Carmel) Burke (Packwood/Sun City West, Arizona), Judy Burke (Yakima), and Bob (Susan) Burke (Packwood).
Burke-70 Years