Billie Burke Thomas

Billie Burke Whitehurst Thomas, age 101, died at her home on Friday, August 17, 2018. She was born Biddie Berte Carlton on November 28, 1916 in Montgomery County, Mississippi near the town of Eskridge to George Martin and Ella Pearl (Johnson) Carlton. At the death of her father in 1919 she was adopted through the Mississippi Children’s Home by Dr. Alfred Franklin and Sarah (Robinson) Whitehurst of Iuka, Mississippi and came to live in the house on the corner of Eastport and Pearl streets across from the Iuka Baptist Church.
“A new life deserves a new name,” Mrs. Whitehurst told Biddie and hoped the child would take to the name Nancy. Mrs. Whitehurst gave her the choice to be called Nancy or Billie Burke and Biddie quickly answered, “Billie Burke.” Again and again, Mrs. Whitehurst offered the choice in different ways and got the same quick response, “Billie Burke!” How many can say they picked their own name when they were less than three years old?
She attended school in Iuka and graduated Iuka High School in 1933. She went on to graduate in physical education from the Peabody College of Education in Nashville, Tennessee in 1937.
She formed the comedy duo “Zeb and Sal” along with high school classmate Lucille Pace. They toured the Mid-South performing on stage and radio, and in 1939 went to New York City to perform on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. In 1989 she and Lucille resurrected their act to star in a movie named “Zeb and Sal,” which won a Gold Award at the Worldfest Houston International Film Festival in 1993 and was featured at the Angelica Film Festival in New York City, just down the street from where they appeared on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour over 50 years before.
She married her high school sweetheart and classmate James Edward “Ed” Thomas in 1942 and worked for the WPA while Ed served in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war she raised her family and worked as a regional executive director for the Girl Scouts of America and for the Mississippi Welfare Department until her retirement in 1981.
Billie Burke enjoyed a half century of directing high school junior and senior plays, talent contests, beauty reviews, weddings, and for over 40 years the Iuka United Methodist Church Choir, Christmas cantatas and pageants. She was also club reporter for the Iuka Twentieth Century Club when they won the national Build a Better Community Contest in 1950. In all her pursuits, she charmed us with her talents, her enthusiasm and that infectious smile. When she told you that you could do it, you just knew you could do it.
She came to Iuka when she was less than three years old and truly loved it here and saw no reason to leave. At 101 years of age at 8:20 a.m., August 17, 2018, she left this earth from her home at the corner of Eastport and Pearl streets across from the Iuka Baptist Church.

Visitation will be held at the Iuka United Methodist Church from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m., Sunday, August 19, 2018. Visitation will continue from 10:00 a.m. until service time at the church on Monday. Funeral services are scheduled for 12:00 p.m., Monday, August 20, 2018, at the Iuka United Methodist Church, officiated by Rev. Kerry Powell. Interment will take place in the Oak Grove Cemetery. Pallbearers include Roger Byrd, John Castleberry, Cliff Daniel, Tommy Drake, Robert Grisham and Douglas Nixon. Cutshall Funeral Home of Iuka, MS is entrusted with arrangements.
Survivors include two sons, James Edward “Eddie” Thomas, Jr. and Franklin Whitehurst “Frank” Thomas, both of Iuka, MS. She was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, James Edward Thomas, Sr.; her parents, George and Ella Carlton; ten brothers and sisters; her adoptive parents, Dr. and Mrs. A. F. Whitehurst; and two adoptive sisters.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Iuka United Methodist Church Choir, 101 East Eastport Street, Iuka, MS 38852 or Iuka Heritage, Inc. (The Little Church), P.O. Box 165, Iuka, MS 38852. An online guest book may be accessed at www.cutshallfuneralhome.com