Black male, marital status unknown, about 52 years old when he died of pneumonia at Pensacola Hospital, Pensacola, FL, on 17 December 1935. He had been in town for two days, his last residence having been Monticello, Georgia. The death certificate was signed by the Coroner, indicating a physician had not been in attendance. Mr. Burns was buried by Goldstucker Bros. on 18 December in the Escambia County Poor Farm cemetery.
The informant on the death certificate was identified as a resident of the city [of Pensacola] but with no other information regarding his or her relationship to Mr. Burns. I originally thought the name was “L.J. Byrd,” but after some research on people named Byrd living in Pensacola at the time, I believe it to be “L.V. Byrd.” (The “v” is caught up in the “t” of “City” on the line underneath.) L.Vann Byrd was the County Jailer at the time, which implies that Mr. Burns had been arrested at some point upon his arrival in town. This explains why so many blanks in the death certificate – including Mr. Burns’ place of birth, names of parents, marital status, and history of his illness – were filled in with “D.K.” (“Don’t Know”), and his age was given as approximate.
I have been unable to locate Mr. Burns in any records as yet.
SOURCES:
Florida Certificate of Death for Charley Burns (No. 20028), Florida Deaths, 1877-1939. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.