[note: I just finished this article for the regional magazine, Eastern North Carolina Woman, about my friend Bea Burnett] -->
Eastern North Carolina Woman
Dana Stone
“I’ve Had a Good Life”
(cover introductory text) Bea Burnett of Tarboro, North Carolina dominates the senior women’s tennis circuit, but she goes much deeper than tennis.
(cover photo: black and white promotional shot, head and shoulders)
Photo caption: Bea Burnett, around the age of 28
Bea greeted her friend at the first ring of the doorbell, her periwinkle blue eyes shining. Holding the door wide open, she gestured me toward the enormous antique buffet gracing her foyer, and to the two small boxes in front of it. “Photographs, yes we will have photographs!”
In preparation for her interview, Bea had begun the process of hauling out photographs from her long career. She would later detail the memories and people recorded therein. There were more photographs on shelves inside the buffet, framed family heirlooms.
“This buffet was the first piece Dick and I bought together,” Bea offered, referring to Dick Burnett, her husband of 33 years. “The dishes in it were from the drug store that used to be downtown. They had the ‘blue plate special’ every day for lunch.”
Bea led the way to her kitchen, where lunch was laid out. It was a sumptuous spread of jumbo shrimp, acorn squash with pesto, fresh avocado slices with crabmeat salad, pine nut hummus, rice crackers, roasted garlic blossoms, pecans, and cabbage/pasta salad.
“These are like candy,” Bea said, gesturing toward the garlic blossoms. “And the cabbage/pasta salad is featured in the Episcopal Church Cookbook.”
Her friend sampled a garlic blossom, shouting, “Hallalujah,” at which time Bea chimed in for a rousing duet of Handal’s most famous chorus. As we sat down to eat, Bea reflected on the recipes, looking up and gesturing while she sampled a taste of this and a taste of that, exclaiming, “cooking just makes me so happy.”
“Oh, look at the cardinal in the dogwood tree!” That is just so North Carolina!” We paused to admire a cardinal feasting on a hanging bird feeder in her neighbor’s yard. Bea Burnett is clearly a nature lover, having grown up on a farm in Edgecombe County. “We had cotton, corn, peanuts, tobacco, and soybeans. It was always such a relief when we got the soybean crop, because soybeans didn’t have to be harvested. They just grew. Of course, everything had to be picked by hand.”
With ten brothers and sisters, there was plenty of help on her parent’s farm. “I’m the fifth from the top, with seven brothers and three sisters. I couldn’t wait to leave Tarboro, and went to ECU when it was still called ECTC (Eastern Carolina Teacher’s College). I decided on ECU because one of my aunts, whom I admired tremendously, had gone there. I got a scholarship, and didn’t play any sports back then. Growing up, I always had to go home and help on the farm, and couldn’t stay after school.”
On an academic scholarship, Bea’s plan was to attend ECU and eventually to teach school until she saved up enough money to open up a nursery. “I got a scholarship from Johnny Wolfe. I tried out for cheerleading, but didn’t get it.” Bea’s disappointment was short-lived – “I got over it!”
Such resilience would reap huge benefits later in life when Bea became an actress. She could cope better with the rejection and disappointment that came with trying out for audition after audition. She smiled as she recalled her first audition at the age of five when she was in the first grade. “I played the wolf in the ‘The 3 Little Pigs.’
After attending ECU for a year, Bea opted to live in a different city and chose Chicago because “Aunt Margie lived there.” Chicagoans were intrigued with the young woman’s “hick” accent. “They all wanted to hear my Southern accent, and when they asked me where I lived, I responded, ‘why, I live with cuddin Margie and cuddin Woody.’ That was how I talked back then.”
Fast forward to the age of 19 and her time in Chicago. In Chicago, Bea embarked on a course of study at Northwestern University where she took business and acting courses. Her svelte figure and soft Southern accent eventually landed her lots of work. Her acting career included the roles of Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and Amanda Wingfield in “The Glass Menagerie,” both written by Southern playwright Tennessee Williams. Years later, she would enroll in speech and voice training to help diminish her Southern way of speaking, and to help launch her singing talents. She carries those singing talents with her today as she sings in the Calvary Episcopal Church Choir in her hometown of Tarboro, North Carolina.
“Chicago was where I had my first trade show, with Chicago being the trade show capital of the United States. I was Miss National Hot Dog in fifteen cities. For Mercedes Benz, I was their spokeswoman at the auto shows in five cities for nine years.” She also represented Bayer Aspirin for five years.
Commenting on her Madison Avenue days, Bea concluded: “I did over 50 TV commercials; right face at the right place at the right time. I still get residuals on some of the soap operas I was on.” She even appeared in several films, and a few soap operas.
Bea, now 75, still has model good-looks, and has aged gracefully and beautifully. As a child, she admits that she was an introvert. Middle children are sometimes starved for attention, especially in large families where they have younger siblings to look after. Bea admits that she got the attention she craved on the stage.
Being gorgeous didn’t hurt, as Bea Burnett radiates an inner light that must have delighted photographers. She bonds with the camera, and seems to instinctively know how to strike a pose that is relaxed and natural.
A Star on the Tennis Court: Bea recalled her first time playing tennis. “I was 17 at ECTC (East Carolina University), on a scholarship. Edith Rogers, a friend who lived across the hall from me at Cotton Hall, asked me to play. I hesitated, and she said, ‘I have an extra racquet.’ We played. I won. I was hooked.”
Bea’s exploits on the tennis circuit seem legendary. Currently, she holds the World Title for the Senior World Individual Championship in the 75 year old division. For this honor, she won the Queen’s Cup competition last fall in Antalya, Turkey. During the event, Bea teamed with Dorothy Mathiessen of Pasadena, California, and Carol Wood of Rockville, Maryland in the 75 year old division. She also took silver medals in the individual 75 and over singles and doubles competitions. According to a press release from the United States Tennis Association, the Queen’s Cup team “came through on top without losing a set, although they faced their toughest competition in the team from France.” For the Queen’s Cup competition, Bea doubled her medal count from 2010.
Recalling her win in Turkey, Bea recalled the location of the match, in Altalya, Turkey, saying, “it’s a paradise on the Mediterranean.” She also elaborated how her sister, Rosemary, was ill with lung cancer at the time. “Rosemary was in my thoughts. Each match that I played and won, I dedicated it to Rosemary. She was a year and a half younger than me.”
Special note from the USTA: “The United States Tennis Association is the national governing body for tennis in the U. S., and the leader is promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level – from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 750,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, the highest attended annual sporting event in the world.”
Looking back over the last few years, here is a run-down of tennis highlights from Bea’s life. In 2010, she participated in the USTA Grass Court Championships, Westside Tennis Club at Forest Hills. In 2008, she won the Women’s 70 Singles Tournament at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. In 2007, she played in the 27th ITF Super Seniors World Individual Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. And finally, and closer to home, she won the Brooklyn Heights, New York women’s tennis singles for 14 consecutive years, 17 in all.
Philanthropy: Bea Burnett is much more than tennis. She recalled her Civil Rights activities during the 1960’s. “I was an early member of the NAACP and helped integrate bowling alleys, restaurants and movie theaters in different parts of the country.” She belonged to the American Tennis Association where she was the “token white member.”
She explained: “the ATA was formed when Ralph Bunch’s son was not allowed to play in the USTA, which at the time was for whites.” When I lived in Bermuda, I also taught tennis to the underprivileged on the Governor's court.”
Additional volunteer activities included being a reader for Recording for the Blind for 5 years. On her work with Recording for the Blind, she commented that “the most important and difficult project for me was recording a guitar book for the blind. I was on the Board for Meals on Heels for 10 years and delivered meals to the elderly (on heels, not wheels)!”
Bea sings at Calvary Episcopal Church and serves as a hospice volunteer where “I visit and sing with the patients.”
Bea’s many memberships include being life members of the NSWTA, the USTA, the Actors Fund, Transportation Alternatives, the League of American Bicyclists, and Road Runners.
Additionally, she is very active in the NSWTA (National Senior Women’s Tennis Association). She elaborated: “One of my passions for NSWTA is, whenever I travel to play in a tennis tournament, is to solicit new members for our organization. Another is to write articles for my age group for the NSWTA magazine.”
A Passion for Health and Fitness: She would like to live to the age of 125. She elaborated, “when I was a little girl, I asked my daddy how long he wanted to live. He said, ‘oh, I want to live to be about 65.’ And I said, ‘oh, Daddy, that is so old!’ Well, he died when he turned 65. Me? I want to live to be 125.”
To help her toward this goal, Bea practices a vegetarian lifestyle. “I don't eat things that crawl or fly. Sometimes, I eat things that swim. I eat lots of vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, and fruit. Genes have a lot to do with it; and I was born lucky -- on a farm, growing our own vegetables, etc. I watch what I eat: breakfast like a queen, lunch like a princess and dinner like a beggar. I exercise regularly, take vitamins, and get fresh air and sunshine, frequently. I have had a good life. There is something wonderful about every decade.”
She paused to comment on Tarboro, her hometown to which she returned nine years ago. Reflecting on the newcomers to the area, she wondered out loud if “Tarboro is replacing Ft. Lauderdale.” We agreed that the town should be promoted to gay people, concluding that “this might save it.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Bea Burnett took her guest on a tour of her home. She and her husband Dick live in Mary Howard’s house, who was a Red Cross volunteer during World War II. (You can read Mary’s memoir at the Veteran’s Museum in downtown Tarboro).
The home was re-modeled by Dick and Bea, with help from Bea’s sister, Arona. We started at the foyer, which was added on during the renovation. As Bea explained, “we had to knock down a brick wall in order to open up the space.”
Continuing to the living room, Bea pointed out the brick fireplace, “which is original.”
As we moved over to the antique buffet, Bea looked down at boxes of old photographs. As she looked through them, she reflected on her travels, and picked out a photograph taken in Spain. She explained, “I went to Spain one summer to work on my game. This was around 1972. I had an apartment on Costa del Sol, overlooking the Mediterranean, a penthouse with two bedrooms, and two baths. It was about $15.00 a month, with maid service. I took my best friend with me.”
She gestured toward a black and white photo taken at the El Jaleco nightclub. “One night we went there, and you can see my friend in the sexy black dress.”
This was clearly a nostalgic memory for Bea, as she reflected on her many travels, which also included two visits to Japan and a trip to Russia. Her favorite country? “The United States of America!”
Bea Burnett has come home to Tarboro, where she continues to live life to the fullest, with a commitment to keeping fit, inspiring others, and involvement in community activities. She ended the interview with an invitation to join her on a bike ride. So typical of Bea Burnett, and her giving spirit.
Photos:
1. Buffet gracing the foyer of Bea Burnett’s home.
2. A ‘blue plate special’ dish, one of many from an old Tarboro drug store
