Thoughts on Georgianna McBurney by Kitty Cole on the occasion of her memorial service

June 15, 2013 Malibu CA City Hall

I am privileged to have some wonderful women friends and Georgianna leads the pack.  She is my best friend. I met her on the west side of Chicago in the late sixties at a seminar for women.  We helped form the New Women’s Forum that forged new methods that allowed decision making from the bottom up. 

Georgianna grew up in the World War II generation.  She was fierce about her country, fierce about women’s equality and fierce about civil rights.  She sometimes remarked that she walked with one foot in the establishment and one foot in the disestablishment, which, actually made her strangely effective. 

Georgianna was very smart - loved and valued learning.  She was one of the funniest people I knew and saw the mundanity of life in rye humorous ways.  She had a great marriage to a man who was equally smart and funny. They were a great pair that adored each other. 

Georgianna was a big picture woman.  She saw things from a global perspective.  She loved that fact that I was in Japan and even let Jana take her sophmore year of high school with us in Kobe.

She was a leader within the institute of Cultural Affairs.  In 1976, the bicentennial of our country, Georgianna played an important leadership role in a campaign that did a town meeting in every county of America. She saw it as true democracy.  In 1980, she and I celebrated the election of Harold Washington as Mayor of Chicago, by offering town meetings in every neighborhood of Chicago.  She often quoted Daniel Burnham “make no little plans”.

Georgianna did not want to do anything unless it was cutting edge.  So anything she did was put into a global context. It was great fun working with her.

Most of all Georgianna was a great friend.  She would laugh at pretentiousness and brought things into perspective. She had a great capacity to love. I will miss Georgianna McBurney and wish her god’s speed on whatever journey she is on now.    

Imagining World – By Brian Andreas

In my dream,

the angel shrugged

& said, if we

fail this time, it

will be a failure of

imagination

& then she placed the world

gently in the palm of my hand.