Burleson, Christine, 1899-1967

Biography

Christine Burleson was born January 5, 1899 to David Sinclair and Mary Henley Dew Burleson in Florence, Alabama. She came to Johnson City, Tennessee in September 1911 when her father, D. S. Burleson, accepted a teaching position at East Tennessee State Normal School. She grew up on the campus and graduated from the Normal High School in 1917. She graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1919 with an A.B. degree (magna cum laude). The following year she received a B.A. degree from Vassar College.

After doing graduate work in philosophy and English at Columbia University, she began teaching in 1921 at Kemper Hall, Kenosha, Wisconsin. She returned in 1925 to teach at East Tennessee State College. In 1928, she entered Oxford University and took honors in English and literature in 1931.

In 1932, she received a certificate in Italian from the University of Siena. She served as Dean of Women and professor of English at Bethany College, West Virginia from 1932-1936.

Burleson collaborated on two series of English texts with her father which resulted in six texts published by Allyn and Bacon from 1936-1946. These texts have been used in every state, Puerto Rico, Korea and the Philippines. In the midst of this project, she received a M.A. degree from Oxford in 1939.

In 1946, Christine Burleson returned to teaching in the Department of English, East Tennessee State College. She became a noted Shakespearean scholar, which included continued attendance at the Shakespeare Festival, Antioch, Ohio. Upon her retirement in 1967, she received the first annual Distinguished Faculty Member Award. She died November 2, 1967.

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