Ola Mae Burr Peete

 A Woman from Hope

Miss Ola Mae (as she liked to be called) was born in Hope, Arkansas, to Reverend and Mrs. Smead P. Easter as the third child of what would grow into a sibling group of eight. She helped her family by picking cotton, taking care of younger siblings, and becoming the family seamstress. She also liked to knit, rug cut, solve puzzles and play games. After she learned how to sew aprons at age two, she began making clothes for her dolls out of newspaper patterns, and then for her mother and sisters. She also loved writing poetry.

Miss Ola Mae graduated from Hopewell Elementary School, towards the top of her class from the segregated Yerger High School in Hope, Arkansas, and with honors from nursing school in Phoenix. She became a geriatric nurse and gave comfort to many patients at the end of their lives. 

Growing up in the Jim Crow South brought challenges to her family. About 25 years before she was born, her minister grandfather, Mance Easter, became legendary for standing up to the Ku Klux Klan. Her father rode the ministry circuit and pastored churches in New Mexico, Arizona, and California. He moved his family to Phoenix, where he no longer had to pay Poll Taxes, in the 1950s. Reverend Easter became an active leader in the Civil Rights Movement, leading protests and sit-in, and meeting with Senator Barry Goldwater at his Scottsdale home during the 1964 presidential campaign to educate him about Civil Rights legislation. 

Miss Ola Mae made her father distraught when she informed him that she had registered to vote as a Republican. Her response to his objection, "I joined the Party of Lincoln." During her life, Miss Ola Mae only voted for one Democrat, Bill Clinton, because he hailed from Hope, Arkansas, and she had fond memories of his grandfather's store her neighborhood. President Clinton's grandparents are buried in the same cemetery in Hope as Miss Ola Mae's grandparent, Mance Easter. As a living testament to Arkansas' Jim Crow history, a chain-length fence separates the graves of Blacks and Whites.

Following her high school graduation, Miss Ola Mae moved to Phoenix where she met and married John Lincoln Burr. To this union, two children (Sherri and Ralph) were born. Professor Sherri Burr, the first African American female to obtain tenure at the university in New Mexico, survives her. She credits her mother, who taught her how to read and solve puzzles by the age of three, for her academic successes at Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and Yale Law School, and for becoming the author of over thirty books. Miss Ola Mae liked to introduce her daughter as "Doctor Burr" or "Professor Burr," who dedicated her first published book to Miss Ola Mae and created a character, "Published Poet," based on her mother in another book. 

After Miss Ola Mae moved to Albuquerque in 2007, she loved going line dancing with neighbors and becoming part of a monthly game day where she played her favorites, Mexican Dominoes and Cashflow. Another favorite was attending Kentucky Derby parties where she bet on every horse and expressed surprised when she won.

After divorcing her first husband in the mid-1960s, Miss Ola Mae married Alexander Peete. Four children (Terrance Sr., Mance, Vera, and Tony Jeffrey) were born to this union. 

Miss Ola Mae Burr Peete was pre-deceased her parents, Rev. and Mrs. Easter, six of her siblings, and her two of her sons, Ralph Burr and Tony Jeffrey Peete.

In addition to her daughter Sherri, she is also survived by her sister, Elizabeth Agbi, three Peete children, several grandchildren, including Terrance Peete Jr. (who graduated from Jefferson Middle School in Albuquerque while living with his Auntie Sherri), Alexander Peete, Raphael Burr, Monique Burr, step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends.

In July 2024, Miss Ola Mae successfully survived brain surgery to relieve a spontaneous brain bleed caused by a blood thinner. She spent her final days at the home of her daughter Sherri, with her eldest grandchild, Terrance Peete Jr., assisting with her care. Miss Ola Mae's family thanks her doctors and the Harmony Health and Hospice professionals, including nurse Ashley, OT Theresa, PTs Chris and Josh, and Home Health Aides Laurienne and Miko for their good care of Miss Ola Mae during the final weeks of her life.

Miss Ola Mae was lucid, with sharp hearing, to the end, asking her daughter to order her a computer so she could create her life story. When she saw her visiting son, Terrance Sr., eighteen days following her brain surgery, the first thing she said, "It's Terrance's birthday." At a lunch for him, Miss Ola Mae was asked for her opinion about doing something new and she said, "If you have the time and think you will enjoy it, go for it."

Mayor Tim Keller’s office will read a proclamation honoring Ola Mae Peete Burr and The New Mexico Nurse Honor Guard will salute her nursing service at her September 12th Albuquerque service at French Mortuary.

 A visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2024 - FRENCH Funerals & Cremations Lomas Chapel at 5:00pm, followed by a funeral service at 5:30pm. After the service the family would like to invite everyone to the reception at 6:30pm.  

 A graveside service will be held on Saturday, September 14, 2024 - Resthaven Memory Gardens at 11:00am.