Florence E. Burkes

Florence Emily (Yost) Burkes was born at home (Pottsville, PA) in Feb. 1923,  with her twin brother, Peter Francis Yost.  Their mother Dorothy later told her, "Peter wasn't ready but you came and he had no choice!"  The doctor said the boy would die by morning and he'd return then to write the death certificate.  My grandfather polled  neighbors for  ideas and the one he implemented was putting a drop of whiskey down Peter's throat every hour. When the doctor came back in the morning, the baby boy was hale and hearty, and the dr. asked what they'd done.   Dorothy claimed she climbed out of her childbed, intending to kick the doctor down the stairs...
Peter wore glasses and was picked on  by some boys at St. John's School.  Flossie hit one with her bookbag to get him off Peter and then ran.  When a neighbor's child, George S., hit Peter, Flossie bit him on the ear.  Mrs. S. came grimly to the door saying, "Your Flossie bit our George." Flossie chirped, "He was hitting Peter!"--squaring all in her mom's eyes.
     Flossie had several admirers in high school but never wanted to get married.  After she  and Peter graduated  high school, she took a job at Woolworths and then at Pomeroys Department Store, in the Housewares Dept.  Peter was a whiz at shorthand and typing. He went to Washington, D.C., as a secretary.  She loved roller skating with a gang of girlfriends and taking her bicycle on long solo  rides way out in the country
   George Burkes graduated from a nearby school. At the rink he kept asking her to skate but  wasn't very good.   She found him a pest.  She even led her gang to a further-away rink, but he showed up there too. As boys she knew went off to World War II, she agreed to write to several.  When George was drafted, he asked if he could write to her and she agreed but was glad to see him go.  He wrote and sent small tokens, such as an armadillo sewing basket from Texas that  her mother liked but she did not.  All the other boys came home on leave soon after basic training, but George didn't. He kept writing letters. She always said his letters were the best composed of all she received and he had the neatest handwriting. She fell in love by mail while he was serving in the Philippines.
   Then married after the war.  She quit work when pregnant with her daughter, Ann, their only child.  She went back to work in the store when Ann was 4, with her mother-in-law watching the baby.  Flossie and George had little money; they once went to a warehouse sale to buy a mattress. She wanted to beat the crowd and urged George to boost her up so she could climb a wall; he refused but she saw a warehouse worker she knew & yelled, "Pull me up!"  He did and mom got the mattress while George pretended not to know her.
   He was laid off from his colliery job in 1957, the  year they moved into their house, which he had built (next door to his parents)  board by board over 9 years.  She loved cleaning, tatting (making hand-made lace),  and gardening. Her favorite flower was pansies - because they looked like little faces.  One garden about 8' deep ran the length of the property; she edged it with angled bricks.   She had big circle gardens in front and back yards. She mowed the grass,  first with a push mower & later a power mower.   George was diagnosed with a disabling heart condition at 45. Social Security Disability approval took two years; meanwhile, Flossie supported the family.   He died of his heart condition at 56.  When her in-laws and her own parents needed help, she did their laundry (with a ringer washer!) and cleaned their houses weekly--all while working full-time.   When the store instituted meetings where clerks would describe sale items, her presentations were so entertaining that people came in on their days off to hear her.  "I'm going to use a four letter word that begins with 'F,'" one began; there was an audible gasp.  "And the word is Free!"  She retired in her 60s because the store was moving from Centre St. in Pottsville to the Frackville Mall,  a treacherous drive in  winter.  A hundred people attended a retirement dinner for her at a hotel that they, not the store, paid for.  
   After retirement she took a few trips. She moved to Endicott, New York, to live with her daughter due to health issues.    After she broke her hip she needed a walker but still walked without it in her dreams. I hope she is running free now.
Services are private.  In lieu of flowers, please send any donations to the hospice:  Mercy House, 212 N McKinley Ave, Endicott, NY 13760.

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