William L. Burnham

William Lloyd Burnham, age 94, of Des Moines, Iowa passed away on Monday, February 17, 2025, at 3801 Grand Retirement Campus is Des Moines. Services will be held on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at McLaren's Resthaven Chapel in West Des Moines, with a visitation at 12 pm, and a celebration of life service at 1 pm. Followed by burial at Resthaven Cemetery.

Bill was born in Linden, Iowa on March 10, 1930, to William and Florence (Hoy) Burhman; the fourth of eight children and had only one brother. He grew up in Slater and graduated from Ames High School in 1948. He worked for the Forest Service in Idaho that summer and then attended AIB in Des Moines. Bill enlisted in the Air Force in 1950 for four years and was stationed with a B-29 weather squadron at Sacramento, California for three of those years, attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant

When his enlistment was over, he returned to Des Moines in 1955 and was employed with the State Auto & Casualty Underwriters. A perky little redhead co-worker named Barbara Ellen O'Neill succeeded in attracting his attention. Ultimately, this led to them dating, and then the talk of marriage. Barbara immediately consented to his intense desire to live in Northern California, where he was stationed for three years. They are married on November 23, 1957, and were on the road to California that very next day.

They first live in an apartment in San Rafael, California and his first employment was with an insurance company in San Francisco. One of the fondest memories was the elation of riding a commuter bus every morning to the beautiful alabaster city of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. Bill never forgot his first earthquake; he always recalled it like it was yesterday. The entire office building began to shake rattle and roll, and there were lots of noises within the buildings walls and floors that were moving. He could not believe a building could move that much without falling down. After a few minutes of subsided, and he called Barbara at home, and she was fine and had felt nothing.

After the birth of their daughter, Diane in 1958 and a few years of commuting two hours a day, he changed employment to an auto supply store there in San Rafael, California. They purchased their first home in Novato, where their son Paul was born in 1964. It was a close neighborhood on a cul-de-sac and the children walked to school. They are members of the Novato Methodist Church and cherished the lasting friendships with many church families.

Both he and Barbara thought they lived in the best area of California with moderate temperatures year around. They could take the children on day trips to ocean beaches, Redwood Forest, walks across the Golden Gate Bridge, cable car rides, and 10 major league baseball games. Naturally, they attracted many relatives and friends to visit and gave them all a tour on their visits. He felt as though he were a tour bus driver. After 20 wonderful years, both children were on their own and California was getting very crowded, and so they moved back to Iowa in 1998 to be closer to both of our families.

Our real estate agent advertised our home as professionally landscaped, and it was so easy to grow plants around in California that I felt the desire to get involved in horticulture. He found that opportunity in 1989 with Des Moines Seed & Nursery. Over the next 10 years he learned a lot about horticulture and later found the opportunity to be a gardener at 3801 Grand Care and Retirement Campus. Bill considered this his perfect retirement job.

He and Barbara knew they had found their church attending Windsor when Len Eberhardt was pastor in 1989. Windsor and its congregation were very similar to Novato church in California. Bill was devastated by Barbara's death from cancer on April 6, 2009, and it helped to have so much support of Pastor Bob and Julie and Windsor family during that time.

Their son Paul invited him to stay with his family in California during those winter months of November, December, and January. He recalled it as being a wonderful and uplifting vacation and he was able to see his two grandsons play several football and soccer games. They had the opportunity to visit some favorite places they enjoyed with Barbara such as San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Redwood Forest, Yosemite and Drake Beach. It was exciting for the grandsons to search the Golden Gate Bridge Plaza for the brick with my name, which Barbara arranged for me prior to our return to Iowa.

Bill also had time to renew friendships and visit with several old friends and church friends in Novato and Napa; and to see the home that they lived in for 25 years. He recalled having memories and photos to comfort him, and it felt good to be home again with his church family.

P.S. On a side story about their California life that many may not be aware of. Barbara was a fanatic fan of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. In fact, the New York Giants team moved to San Francisco at the very same time he and Barbara had moved to California. The popularity of the Giants more overshadows ours, as it was talk of the town.

They didn't have a TV yet, so Barbara started listening to the Giants game on the radio. The announcer was so good explaining the game that Barbara slowly evolved into a true baseball fan. They would go to several games a season, sometimes with the children, with our friends or sometimes just the two of them.

During the years before moving back to Iowa, Barbara and a church lady friend got into the ritual of attending absolutely every opening day game every year. They didn't purchase advance tickets; they just drove straight to Candlestick Park. One year the game was sold out and they had to buy tickets from the scalper. Such memories will be cherished.

Bill is survived by his children, Diane (Charlie) Robinson of Sorento, Illinois, Paul (Colleen) Burnham of Boring, Oregon; grandchildren, Bryan Burnham or Pacifica, California and Nicholas Burnham of Wenatchee, Washington; siblings, Church Burnham of Des Moines and Carolyn Guzman of Ankeny. He was preceded in death by his parents; and siblings, Mariam Gamble, Lola Howard, Wilma Frangos, Louise Burnham, and Shirley Kubiskey.

No memorial contributions have been delegated at this time.