Martha Lou Burns

Martha Lou Burns was the eldest daughter of Homer and Jewel Burns, born March 12, 1929, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. She died Saturday, April 12, 2008, at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City.

The family moved to Southern California before the beginning of World War II, looking for opportunities the California Coast offered in income, education and the warm climate.

Early in Martha’s life she was an accountant. Feeling a need to do more than deal with numbers, she studied and became a Licensed Physical Massage Therapist. She worked at the prestigious Century City Spa in Beverly Hills.

At retirement Homer and Jewel moved to New Mexico; Martha later joined them there.

Martha knew the most renowned healing waters and Bathhouses were in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She decided to relocate there and was hired by the premier Arlington Hotel and Bathhouse. Homer and Jewel missed their Home State and decided to move near Martha, so they purchased a home in Pearcy, near Hot Springs.

After the death of both parents, she moved to New York City to live with her sister. She was hired by the elite Elizabeth Arden Salon on Fifth Avenue. She continued to work there until her retirement.

She is survived by her only sibling Deborah Joyce Burns of New York City and her cousins, Malana Macky, James Duffel and B.J. Emerson, all of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Funeral services will be held Friday morning, April 18, 2008, at 10:00 in Emerson Memorial Chapel in Jonesboro.

A graveside committal service will be held Friday afternoon at 3:00 in Memorial Gardens Cemetery near Pearcy with Emerson Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

There will be no visitation.