   Gainesville Daily Register e-edition posted Saturday, May 9, 2015 by Cathy Mounce Community Former Students Organize Scholarship for Beloved Teacher Following on the heels of Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4-8, a group of former students have organized a scholarship in memory of a favorite teacher, Mrs. Lena Newton Burns, formerly of long since gone Burton School in southeastern Cooke County. The original one room Burton School, dubbed Old Burton, was built in the late 1800s. Circa 1941, the Old Burton, Mt. Zion and Lemons schools were consolidated into the two-room new Burton School. Eventually it became a part of the Calisburg school district. Burns taughts grades first, second and third at the new Burton School for several years, teaching a generation of Cooke County children reading, writing and arithmetic. In a previous interview Burns said she had loved school as a child. "Some of my earliest memories are of a little country school where I went, the Fairview school," she had said. "I was the only one in my class to go on to graduate from high school, attending Pilot Point." After high school Burns went on to receive her teaching degree from North Texas State Teacher's College in Denton, now known as University of North Texas. Burns said her father, D.I. Newton, had the greated influence on her becoming a teacher. "He saw that I went to school," she had said. Burns' love of learning was passed down through her efforts to the band of students during the 1940s and 1950s.  Burton School History Susan Hawkins © 2024 Grayson CountyTXGenWeb |