Harriett Barron Burns

Harriett Barron Burns passed away on December 29, 2024, following a brief illness, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, where she has lived for the past eleven years. She was 80. Harriett will be remembered as a stylish hostess, a lover of history, a fabulous cook and a caring grandmother, mother and wife. 

Harriett was born in Canton, North Carolina, the daughter of a local merchant and a public school teacher. Her father, Jack Allen Barron, passed away when she was three years old. She was raised by her mother, Ann Wilson Paxton, on her family’s cotton farm in Shelby, North Carolina, before moving back to Canton for her teenage years. She graduated from Canton High School and attended Meredith College before transferring to and graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in education and history. At Carolina she began a lifelong devotion to the Tar Heels and was an active member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Upon graduation she taught high school in Atlanta. 

While in college, she met Stevens Lindsay Burns of Mobile, Alabama, a First Lieutenant in the United States Navy. They married in 1968 in Asheville, North Carolina, where Steve’s younger brothers threw him into the pool at the Grove Park Inn, while wearing his rented tuxedo (the other tuxedos followed), much to the chagrin of Harriett’s mother, who was the responsible party. After the wedding the young couple began their married life in Jackson, Mississippi where they had their first son, Scott Barron Burns in 1971. They then moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they had their second son, Blair Lindsay Burns in 1974. 

They lived all over the United States over the course of their 56 year marriage, including Southern California, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia and West Virginia. In every city, Harriett served as an active and then sustaining member of the Junior League. In 1995 they moved to Lake Murray in Lexington, South Carolina, where Harriett created a beautiful lakeside home and became an epic and much remembered hostess of family and friends. Harriett was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church and was a member of Christ Our King in Mount Pleasant. 

In addition to her husband and sons, Harriett is survived by her beloved sister, Jamye Sheppard of Canton, North Carolina; her daughters-in-law, Holland Burns of Mount Pleasant and Christina Burns of Vienna, Virginia; her six grandchildren, Barron, Wilson and McCrae Burns and Madeline, Anna Lindsay and Elijah Burns; in addition to many beloved cousins, nieces, and nephews. 

Funeral services for Harriett will be held at Grace Hall, Christ our King Catholic Church in Mount Pleasant on Friday, January 10, 2025 at 10:30 in the morning, with a reception to follow at Hobcaw Yacht Club. 

A memorial message may be sent to the family on our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com.