- Date Of Birth: May 7, 1943
- Date Of Death: May 31, 2022
- State: North Carolina
Elise Blair “Tootie” Burke, left this earth on May 31, 2022, but will live on forever in our hearts.
A native of Gibsonville, NC she was born in Guilford County and was 79 years old.
Tootie is survived by a sister, Barbara Abbie Martin, nephew Eddie Brown, Nieces Mendi Brown and Elise Brown Kennedy (Ben.) Great step nephew Dillon Brightwell, Great Nieces Claire and Samantha Kennedy.
She was preceded in death by her grandparents J.W. and P.T. Burke, and Cylis Dalton and Katherine Albright Story. She was also preceded in death by her parents Edward Mendenhall and Elise Story Burke, sister Etta Brown, brothers-in-law James Brown and Jim Martin and her beloved poodle Pepper Ann.
After graduating from Gibsonville High school, she attended Louisburg and Elon colleges. She graduated from Southeastern School of Beauty in Charlotte NC. She owned and operated Service Beauty Salon in Gibsonville for many years.
She retired from Show Tags a wholesale sporting goods company in Greensboro where she served as office manager and IT specialist. Toddler Tootie received her unusual nickname from her family because she was inseparable from her copy of the Golden Book Tootles. That book is a story about a train that goes off track to pick daisies and learns that to get anywhere it must stick to the tracks. To know Tootie was to know she lived that book. She could be very directed when need be but enjoyed her whimsical frolics. She loved her four-legged friends and she treated them like family.
She had a green thumb and loved gardening, with one notable exception. She led a lifelong yet unsuccessful campaign against the existence of green peas. She refused to eat or grow them.
She never met a stranger and her friendships were long and loyal.
