Valeria Burnet Orr

Valeria (Vallie) North Burnet Orr, of Rome, GA, died at her home on Sunday September 19, 2010. Strong, active and self-directed, she fought interstitial lung disease the final years of her life – living nearly twice as long as her initial prognosis indicated.

Vallie was born in Waycross, Georgia on March 22, 1934 to Henry Heyward Burnet, Jr. and Margaret Catherine North of Bermuda. The Norths were members of the Church of England for many generations. The Burnets were Episcopalians from the time of the American Revolution.

Vallie entered Agnes S. Scott College at the age of sixteen, where she was elected President of the Student Government Association and was graduated with honors. She was a true English major and had a gift throughout her life for finding le mot juste.

Vallie taught English for several years at high schools in Jacksonville, Waycross and Marietta. In 1956 she married Charles Orr of Athens and moved with her family to Rome a decade later. In the 1980s, she achieved her Masters in Education from the University of Georgia.

Having always a passion for justice and a desire to help others improve their lives, Vallie was also a social worker - working for the betterment of others' lives in Ware and Floyd Counties. In the late 1970s, she served as director of the Floyd County Department of Family and Children Services.

She loved the friends she made and the adventures they had together singing in chorales. She enjoyed traveling and singing with her friend W.C. Owen at Wells Cathedral in England. She sang with the Berry College Chorale, the Rome Symphony Chorus, the Rome Community Chorus, the Three Rivers Singers - and was thrilled to be chosen to sing with the Bach Festival Chorus. She loved her friends at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, whom she considered family, and sang in the choir for thirty-seven years.

Playing team tennis was one of her greatest joys. She was a member of the Rome Tennis Club and the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association.

She was a member of The Colonial Dames of America, of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Heyward Family Association. She had served on the Board of Directors at Darlington School, The Rome Symphony, and the Star House. She had served as a member of the vestry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. She was honored to be elected the first president of The National Creative Society in Rome. She was Vice President of the Class of 1954 Agnes Scott College Alumna.

She relished traveling, meeting new people, genealogy, theater, collecting antique "finds" and refinishing them, serving at Good Neighbor Ministries, tutoring adult students in English as a second language, and her beloved Scottish Terrier companions.

Her son, Charles Orr, Jr. died in a highway accident in 1984. Her ex-husband, Charles Orr, died in 1992.

She is survived by her daughter Elizabeth Burnet Orr Ard, her son-in-law, the Reverend Roger Hoyt Ard, her step-grandsons Thomas Hunter Ard of Greenville, SC and John Wesley Jones of Decatur, GA., and by her sister, Ann Burnet Paulsen and husband Don, of Winter Park, FL and her sister-in-law Alice Marie Burnet of St. Simons, Georgia.

Other survivors include nieces Catherine Ann Paulsen of Orlando, FL and Julie Burnet McClaurine of Jacksonville, FL and her nephew Henry Heyward Burnet IV or Amelia Island, FL. Her brother Henry Heyward Burnet III pre-deceased her earlier this year.

The Burial Office for Vallie was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at Noon. Following the service, the family received friends in Daniel Hall.

Interment will follow at a later date at Grace Episcopal Church in Waycross, where she was baptized and married.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Peter's Episcopal Church Building Fund or to one of the scholarship funds honoring Charles Orr, Jr. at Darlington School, the University of the South, or Breadloaf at Middlebury College.