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Volume 3699a

MEET MARY BURROUGHS
Part II (See Part I at ERBzine 3699)
Mary appeared at the 2012 Tarzana ECOF
March 1-4, 2012
A Love Story:
Mary Burroughs Remembers
John Coleman Burroughs
Reprinted from ERBzine 0334

Bob Hyde's Photo of John and Mary Burroughs in the Early '60s
At the Burroughs Home in Malibu - Early '60s
Dian ~ Bob Hyde ~ Mary and John Coleman ~ Danton ~ Hulbert

It is time to tell this love story. It began during a summer art class in 1955. John had enrolled in a life drawing/painting class (night school) under an assumed name. I fell in love with his artwork and we became friends.

It was six months before he revealed his true identity to me during a Halloween party hosted by our art instructor, a lovable Italian professor on Sabbatical from Italy.  John was Errol Flynn to me but he was Tarzan to himself, physically daring, invincible, immortal and pleasantly eccentric.

He took great pride in himself, his health and physical stamina: swam every day, rain or shine, and rode horseback on the hills of Tarzana that had once been Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ranch, where John spent many happy years growing into manhood.

When our Italian professor returned to Italy in 1956 John invited a select group from the art class to form a class at his studio in Tarzana.

Our friendship grew and we fell in love. John’s modesty, regarding his talents as a painter, never ceased to amaze. He was one of the most prolific artists I’ve ever known but he took his gift lightly. He was a student of the Russian contemporary painter, Nicolai Fechin. They traveled together in the Southwest and Mexico during the forties and early fifties and John exhibited his work and sold many paintings in Arizona and New Mexico at well-known art galleries.

His talents as a father and a Tarzan role model were much more important priorities to him.

We took only one trip in the six years before we married in December 1961. It was in Spring, and we went for a weekend to Rosarita Beach and to the bullfights in Tijuana, Baha California. John, being Tarzan, ate the food and drank the water against my better judgement, as he felt immune to any consequences.

One week after we returned he became seriously ill with what was later diagnosed as viral encephalitis, which does kill most of its victims. John did not even go to the hospital or see his physician until ten days after a deliriously high fever.

He began to suffer weakness in his legs and general malaise that summer and in December when we married he was mysteriously ill. Within six months following our wedding he was confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk. It was perhaps the worst punishment this Tarzan could endure. And the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease that followed rendered him inconsolable.

We sought refuge in Malibu by the ocean, which we both felt was therapeutic as well as magic for us. It did help the morale but John’s physical condition deteriorated. During that time, Hulbert Burroughs, John’s brother, was able to contact drug researchers in Europe, who were conducting experiments and studies with L’Dopamine. It is the treatment which has become the savior for many sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease, in spite of its side effects.

John was one of the first people in the United States to try this medication, with miraculous results. After three months of closely monitored dosage, he got up out of his wheelchair, one and one-half years into our marriage and walked out on the deck of our home to view the Pacific Ocean. He was standing, unaided, on his own strength for the first time. This was such a wonderful deliverance for him. The L’Dopamine medication became his key to freedom from the limitations of his body, for eight hours every day. Then he would have to retreat to his wheelchair prison until the following morning when his medication started again. He had not been able to paint for two years but he barely agonized at this part of the tragedy because his other physical limitations were such a priority to his vision of himself.

He began to paint and tried valiantly to regain the use of his limbs through exercise and walking on the beach every day with our house boy or his sons, John and Danton. We started having fun doing some of the accessible things we loved, entertaining friends, and going to museums and art galleries. We tried to be the personification of our great love for each other for a little while, which will have to last me for my lifetime.

~ Mary Burroughs ~ May 2000
Reprinted from the ECOF 2000 Special Edition


MARY BURROUGHS HAS MADE MANY APPEARANCES
IN THE PAGES OF ERBzine
ERBzine GALLERY AND LINKS

ECOF 2000 ~ Clarksville Tennesse
Mary was Guest of Honour

Mary - Bill Hillman - Jim Thompson - Mary
Mary - Bill Hillman - Jim Thompson - Mary
Sue-On and Bill Hillman - Mary - Linda Thompson
Sue-On and Bill Hillman - Mary - Linda Thompson
Mary with friend, Mary
Mary with friend, Mary
Mary with Bob Hyde
Mary with Bob Hyde
Mary displaying some of Tom Yeates' sketches
Mary withTom Yeates' sketches
Mary with John Tyner - displaying the Official Panthan T-Shirt
Mary with John Tyner - Panthan T-Shirt
Barry Stubbersfield - Mary Burroughs
With Barry Stubbersfield
Mary with Jim and Linda Thompson
With Jim and Linda Thompson
Mary Burroughs
Mary's Dinner Comments

LOUISVILLE DUM-DUM 2003

Mary and friends at a Louisville Blues Club

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Spargurs, Bill Ross, Hillmans, Mary, Danton, Stacy Burroughs
Jeddara Mary Burroughs and JoN
Achievement Award
Mary Burroughs ~ Dan ~ Sue-On Hillman
With Dan and Sue-On
Mary Burroughs
Meeting Fans


TARZANA


Danton at home sharing treasures with Mary and Stacy

Mary Burroughs with daughters Stracy and Kim 
Dan and Mary Burroughs
Visiting Danton
Dan with Stacy Burroughs
Dan and Stacy at Tarzana Ranch
Mary Burroughs
Mary and Prius on Ventura
Mary Burroughs
ECOF Convention Room
Sue-On Hillman ~ Stacy Burroughs ~ Mary Burroughs
Tarzana Ranch with Sue-On & Stacy
John ~ Stacy ~ Mary ~ Danton
Charlie G's: John Westervelt., Stacy, Mary, Dan
Mary Burroughs and Bob Hyde
Chatting with Bob Hyde
.
ERBzine Refs:
Mary Burroughs: A Love Story
"Mary Burroughs Shines at ECOF 2000" :: GRIDLEY WAVE 213
Mary & Stacy Burroughs at Dum-Dum 2003
With Mary and Stacy in Tarzana
The John Coleman Burroughs Website
The Danton Burroughs Website
MORE JCB ART
ERBzine 0716
Danton's Collection
JCB Mars Art
Native American Art
Gridley Wave
Rare Art from the Tarzana Vaults
1 Intro | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15


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