Mrs. Mary McMillan Burt dies
Mrs. Mary McMillan Burt,
who was honored in 1968 as the
Wisconsin Rapids Area citizen
of the year, died Sunday at Bay
Front Medical Center, St.
Petersburg, Fla. following a
brief illness.
Funeral services will be at
2 p. m. Friday at the First
Congregational, United Church
of Christ, in Wisconsin Rapids.
The Rev. Calvin Fischer will
officiate. Burial will be in
Forest Hill Cemetery.
It was Mrs. Burt's gift of
Consolidated Papers, Inc. stock
to the city of Wisconsin Rapids
which led to the building of
McMillan Memorial Library in
1967. She said she was placing
20,000 shares of stock in trust
to help finance construction of
a library to be named after her
parents, Mr and Mrs Archie
McMillan and her uncle, George
McMillan.
Work on the library began in
1968 and was completed in April
of 1970. Federal and city funds
and other gifts were used to
cover the additional cost of the
$1.25 million facility.
In accepting her citizen of the
year award from the Wisconsin
Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce
in January of 1968, Mrs.
Burt said of the proposed
library:
"It is truly Everyman's
College, the repository of
records of the achievements of
man through the ages, there for
the use of any citizen."
Her parents and uncle were
pioneers of the Central
Wisconsin Area, who first
settled in Waushara County.
Mrs. Burt was born Dec. 2, 1876
in Saxeville, Waushara County.
To provide better educational
opportunities for their
daughters, Mary and Anna, the
McMillans moved to Centralia
(the West Side of Wisconsin
Rapids) in 1891.
Mary McMillan graduated
from Centralia High School in
1894. Four years later she
graduated from Stevens Point
Normal School, and obtained
her bachelor's degree from the
University of Wisconsin in 1903.
She taught mathematics in
elementary schools in Wisconsin
Rapids, Marshfield and Ashland
from 1903 to 1912 before
returning to the University of
Wisconsin where she earned her
master's degree in 1914. She
then went to River Falls to
teach mathematics at the state
normal school there and headed
the math department there
from 1920 to 1925.
She returned to Wisconsin
Rapids in 1925 and was active
in a variety of community
activities until 1942 when she
married Laertes Burt of St.
Petersburg, Fla and moved
there. Mr. Burt died in 1966.
Mrs. Burt spent most of her
summers in Wisconsin Rapids
until about the last five years.
She also taught several years
at St. Petersburg Junior
College.
In 1959, Northland College
awarded her an honorary doctor
of laws degree in recognition
of her years at Ashland High
School where she headed the
math department.
She was a member of the
T. B. Scott Library Board of
Trustees for 25 years, and was
a member of the Friends of
the Library board in St.
Petersburg several years. Mrs.
Burt was affiliated with the
American Association of
University Women, St. Petersburg,
and held membership in
the American Mathematical
Society, the Mathematical
Association of America and a
fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement
of Science.
Other activities included
membership in Chapter
0 P E 0 Sisterhood, Wisconsin
Rapids and the Pilgrim
Congregational Church, St.
Petersburg, Fla.
Friends may call at Wilkinson
Mortuary in Wisconsin Rapids
from 4 p.m. Thursday until 11
a.m. Friday, and at the church
from noon until time of ser-
vices. Memorials may be
designated to McMillan Library
or Riverview Hospital.
A service also will be held
at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at
Rhodes Funeral Home in St.
Petersburg.
--The Daily Tribune; Tuesday, March 20, 1973

Transcribed as found in the original source.
(Photo in newspaper.)

Name Mary Bell McMillan
Birth Date 11 p.m. Sat. 21[sic] Dec 1876
Birth County [Saxeville] Waushara, Wisconsin, USA
Date of Certificate [Sunday] 3 Dec 1876
Certificate 00014