Marvin Everett Burhenn
"Cotton"
July 29, 1920 – February 25, 2012

The roaring twenties hadn't started yet, but on July 20, 1920, a new baby boy caused an uproar in the home of William and Josephine Anna (Christiansen) Burhenn. He was "Josie's" first and Bill's fifth. Bill's first wife had died from complications after falling down a stairway. Marvin was welcomed to the home by four half-brothers, Clarence, Frank, Ralph, and Clinton (Shorty). The home they shared was located near Ellinwood, Kansas, in Barton County, where the family made their living farming. The family stayed in that location until Marvin was eight, so he attended school through first and second grade at District # 50 country school.
In August of 1928, the family moved to Baca County, Colorado, in a 1928 Chevrolet truck and a 1927 Buick touring car. The livestock they owned was shipped by train to Walsh, Colorado, and were driven on hoof from there to the farm they had purchased two miles west and one-half mile south of Stonington, Colorado. By this time the family had grown to include three more siblings, George, Pearl and Ruby. As they worked together to make a living growing things on the farm, the family also continued growing until it included three more children, Erwin DeWayne (who died of dust pneumonia when he was five), William, Jr., (Pickle) and Charles.
From this home, Marvin and his siblings walked to Stonington to attend school. His first teacher there was Ada Greathouse. He won first place for embroidering a tea towel while in her class. He completed his school years at Stonington, graduating in 1939 in his class of three, all tied for the honor of valedictorian. During his school years he helped his dad on the farm and cut broomcorn for Sherman Scott and George Murray for $1.50 a day with room and board provided. This necessitated his missing about six weeks of each school year to help with the harvests. He also worked part-time in the school lunch room to earn extra spending money.
While in high school, Marvin played basketball and baseball. It was at first base that he met the love of his life, Vina Jewell Webster, who played that position for the opposing team. For him, it was love at first sight, but for her it was anger that they would let someone as old and as big as he was play against a grade school team and one freshman. Marvin persisted in his pursuit of her and won her heart and her hand in marriage on January 16, 1940. They began farming on their own and lived two miles west, one mile south, and one-half mile west of Stonington. He worked for twenty-five dollars a month, one tenth of the crop, and a partially furnished place to live. It was there, in a little four room house, that he and Vina Jewell began their family. Marvin Leroy was born on November 8, 1941, and Cecil Vern was born on May 20, 1944.
In June of 1945, right when the crops were ready to be harvested, Marvin was drafted into the Armed Services. He rode the train (his first train ride) to Denver with Bud Silvey, who had been drafted at the same time. From there, he was sent to Chicago, Illinois, for Boot Camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
After Boot Camp was over, he came home to get his wife so that she could go with him to Providence, Rhode Island, where he would be inducted into the Navy Sea Bees for training in the use of heavy equipment which he would be using overseas. They left their two boys with Vina Jewell's mother. In August of 1945 V J Day occurred, and because of that he was shipped from Rhode Island to California and his wife had to find her own way home. While home, she got the cattle loaded and sold and had the wheat harvested. She then joined him by train and bus, taking Marvin Leroy with her and leaving Cecil with her mother. Soon after Vina Jewell arrived at Camp Parks, near Hayward, California, Marvin was granted leave to come home to sell the crops that had been harvested so that bills could be paid. Instead of riding the train home, they bought a car for the trip home and back. They returned to California, this time taking both boys with them. When he got back to Camp Parks, his unit had already shipped out. He hung around the base for awhile doing odd jobs before he was sent to Mare Island to stay on a submarine. The war ended, and in February, 1946, he was honorably discharged from the Navy.
When they arrived home, they continued farming and the family grew to include another son, Michael Terry, born May 21, 1950. A few months later, Marvin's youngest brother, Charles, came to live in the home. He was eleven at the time and became part of the family. In 1957, Marvin's mother, who had previously had a stroke, came to make her home there for the next eight years until another stroke took her home to glory. Through the years others were taken into the home to enjoy the love they had to give. "Skipper" Lewis, Hope Webb, and Esther (Bobby Gupta's cousin) and even Bobby had the joy of being part of the family for a time.
Work, family and church were the center of Marvin's life and he was always willing to make the time for each. He continued to participate actively in the farm work until he was eighty-one, when the boys insisted that it might be time for him to slow down a bit. During the last twenty years of his working life he had quadruple heart bypass and several stints placed in his heart.
Marvin repented of his sin, believed the good news that Christ died for his sins, and received Him as his Savior and Lord at a revival meeting in Stonington, Colorado, when he was twelve years old. In 1951, he publicly testified of his faith in Christ by being baptized by immersion and became a member of the First Baptist Church in Walsh, Colorado. He made sure that his family was involved and present at every service of the church and served the Lord faithfully there until his passing. He held many offices, taught Sunday School, was a youth leader, and served as a deacon and treasurer for forty plus years.
After a series of battles with various ailments beginning in December of 2010, Marvin became a resident at the Stanton County Long Term Care Center in Johnson, Kansas. On Saturday, February 25, 2012, he succumbed to a week long battle with pneumonia and experienced the victory over death that Christ had won for him on the cross. For him, to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord.
Marvin was preceded in death by his parents, William and Josephine, his son and shadow Terry, seven brothers: Clarence (Ruby), Frank (Armilda), Ralph (Esther), Clinton (Ilene), George (Ruby, still surviving), Ervin and Charles, (Jackie, still surviving), and three brothers-in-law: Thomas Jeffries, Charles Herron, Leslie Gibson, Jr. (Floreine) and Norman Webster, and his parents-in-law, Epp and Margaret Webster.
He leaves behind to cherish his memory, his wife, Vina, of the home, his two sons: Marvin and wife Jean of Leesburg, Florida, Cecil and wife Carol, and daughter-in-law Marlene, both of Walsh, Colorado; twenty-one grandchildren: (including Charles and Jackie's two): Dewayne and Charis; (Marvin's four): Lee Daniel (Michelle), Linda Denise (Terry) Portis, Lisa Diane (Jeff) Cohea, and Leroy Douglas; (Cecil's eight): Candice (David) Sneed, Cheri (Jeff) Martin, Connie, Catherine (Josh) Belcher, Chandra (Adam) Meshaw, Crystal (Gilbert) Mares, Clinton, and Caitlyn, and (Terry's seven): Delmar, Lyle (Lalane), Carmen, Richard (Tiffany), Brian, Miles (Jesse), and Diamond (Jonathan) Mason; and thirty-four plus great-grandchildren. He also leaves one sister: Ruby; one brother, William, Jr. (Francis); three sisters-in-law, Ruby, Jackie and Edna Mae Herron; two brothers-in-law William (Ruby) Ermel and Richard Webster; a host of other relatives, nieces, nephews and friends.
We will miss his faithful, hardworking, Christ-like example, his love to each of us, his sense of humor, and his passionate love for Mom (for seventy-two years). We are looking forward to seeing him when we all get to our eternal home where there will be no more good-byes.
Thank you husband, dad, grandpa, brother, uncle and friend for sharing your journey and love with us. For those who remain, may "the Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace." (Numbers 6:24-26).
"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead (in Christ) shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." (I Corinthians 15:51-58).