Rabbit earns respect

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October 17, 2009

WWII vet receives long overdue VFW membership on 90th birthday

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sat Oct 17, 2009, 10:28 PM CDT

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.

Dorsey said that while growing up in Baxter Springs she, her siblings and their parents didn’t go out too much. She said restaurants in Baxter Springs were off limits to blacks unless they chose to eat in the kitchen. The balcony at the segregated movie theater was open to blacks, but she said they rarely attended.

World War II

Rabbit joined the U.S. Army when he was 21. When World War II exploded he found himself driving a Jeep during the war, serving in the Philippines, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He said he didn’t see a lot of combat, but for his service he received the Asiatic Service Medal, the Philippines Liberation Medal, World War II Victory Medal and a Good Conduct Medal.

Despite his service, Burnett was denied membership in the local VFW when he returned home.

Dorsey notes that Burnett was one of four brothers who served in a segregated U.S. military in World War II, and all four had the same experience when they tried to join the VFW after the war.

After being denied membership to the VFW, he and other black veterans in the region formed an all-black American Legion post, called Sunflower Post No. 344. Burnett said he thinks at its peak there were around 25 members.

Today, he is the last member of that group still living.

On the farm

After the war, Rabbit got a job washing windows at the Montgomery Ward store in Joplin, Mo. At the time, it was one of few jobs available to blacks, but he said he didn’t like it.

So when his father proposed getting out of farming, Burnett offered to take over.

“That tickled him to death,” Burnett said.

He took agriculture classes in Riverton and began a career that lasted decades. He said over the years he has raised wheat, corn, milo, oats, soybeans, pigs and cattle. He joked that his sister’s house is where the hog pen used to be.

Burnett never married, but he said he has many nieces and nephews.

“They like to come to the farm,” he said. “There’s always something to be done.”

He joked that he now has a cat farm, referring to the group of cats gathered around the house.

“I didn’t ever think I’d live to be 90 years old,” he said, adding: “It’s tough ... It’s tough getting around.”

Different VFW

Dorsey pointed out that the VFW post that discriminated against her brother in 1946 is a different post than the one in place now. She said the VFW no longer discriminates, noting that a niece, Cortina Barnes, is the national VFW Ladies Auxiliary senior vice president.

Baxter Springs VFW post commander Robert Long said that when Dorsey recently approached him about providing her brother with a life membership for his birthday party, he immediately agreed. Long said he wasn’t aware that Burnett had been denied membership in the past.

Long said he is under no illusion that providing Burnett membership to the VFW now corrects the past injustice or in any way erases the wrong that was done to him. He said he thinks of it as a gesture of goodwill and a show of respect between soldiers.

Burnett was succinct when asked about the changes he has lived through and the progress the country has made with civil rights and race relations during his lifetime, including seeing the first black U.S. president.

“It’s great,” he said.

Birthday party

Rabbit Burnett’s 90th birthday party was held Oct. 3 at the Baxter Springs Lions Club. Family members from around the country showed up. The event featured songs, dances and poems performed by family members.