By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. — Rabbit Burnett has seen a lot — and a lot of change — in 90 years.

At his 90th birthday party just a few weeks ago, Burnett received a life membership from the Baxter Springs Veterans of Foreign Wars post. He had been denied membership decades earlier, after returning from serving in World War II, because he’s black.

“It was beautiful,” Burnett said of the membership.

At the party, current VFW members saluted Burnett. He returned the salute.

He added that he “cried like a baby” when he received the VFW membership, but they were tears of joy.

“Can you imagine a 90-year-old man crying?” Burnett said.

‘Rabbit’

Burnett was born Sept. 28, 1919.

His given name is Orville. He said as a child, probably around age 5, a visitor arrived at the farm after a rabbit dinner. Their father had been hunting that day. The visitor asked the young boy what was in his plump tummy. He responded: “Rabbit.”

He has been called Rabbit ever since by everyone but his mother, who always called him Orville.

He lives on a farm north of Baxter Springs where his “baby sister,” Ruth Burnett Dorsey, also has a house. Burnett is one of 10 siblings, including six brothers and four sisters. Dorsey, at 73, is the youngest.

The house he lives in was bought in Baxter Springs and moved to the farm in 1932, for a total cost of $300 — that’s for the house and the move. Dorsey was born in the house. Burnett just laughed when asked if he got his money’s worth out of the deal.

The farm they live on is the same one that their grandfather, James Burnett, sometimes called James Nix, established in 1883. James Burnett had been a slave and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He later bought the farm property from the railroad, Burnett said.