His career was in Tampa, but his roots in Mississippi

A calm Southern gentleman, Billy Ray Burnham was afraid of nothing but snakes.

By ANDREW MEACHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published October 30, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Billy Ray Burnham worked as a Rankin County (Miss.) deputy sheriff and a Polk County correctional officer. [Handout]

Billy Ray Burnham pointed at the hot dog vendor in a Tampa mall and made a scene.

"This man," he bellowed, "has cheated a little girl out of $3."

The vendor coughed up the correct change for Corley, 6.

It was one of the few times her father ever raised his voice.

Mr. Burnham, a man of medium build who always wore his hair in a buzz cut, embodied the qualities of a Southern gentleman. He walked on the outside of the sidewalk. He opened doors and called everyone "sir" or "ma'am."

He died Tuesday after suffering a stroke. He was 67.

Mr. Burnham was born in Pelahatchie, Miss., a town of 1,200. His wife, Linda, grew up in Jackson. For both of them, their hometowns meant more than a place to grow up.

"When you are from the South, you have such a sense of place," said Linda, 60. "Even when you leave it, you belong to the South. You are just bound to it."

Mr. Burnham worked as a Rankin County deputy sheriff. In the 1970s he moved to Tampa and managed a paneling store and a Radio Shack. He completed a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and got a job as a Polk County correctional officer.

He stayed in that field for 25 years, retiring in 2004 as a lieutenant and shift supervisor at Hillsborough Correctional Institution in Riverview.

He was afraid of snakes, but little else. He was deferential to women, and didn't mind carrying his wife's purse or buying sanitary napkins from a drugstore.

"He said, 'I don't have a question about my manhood," Linda recalled.

When a prisoner kicked in Mr. Burnham's office door and taunted him, Mr. Burnham subdued and handcuffed the man without help, his family said.

He tried to help some prisoners, especially young men whose fathers had served time in the same prisons.

Mr. Burnham read widely and quickly, especially books about the Civil War. He enjoyed music from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Cajun zydeco. He belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and resented stereotypes of Southerners as ignorant and uncivilized.

He enjoyed the songDown by the River to Pray and asked his daughters to sing it when his mother died. They sang it again by Mr. Burnham's bedside at Kindred Hospital.

Mr. Burnham didn't want a service, but on Monday his family celebrated his life. He will be buried in Puckett, Miss.

"He will certainly go back to where he came from," his wife said.

Billy Ray Burnham

Born: May 21, 1942

Died: Oct. 23, 2007

Survivors: wife, Linda; children, Renee Waldron (David), Damon Burnham and Corley Hernandez; sisters, Jeannine Walters, Bonny Tigrett and Sylvia Burnham; numerous nieces, nephews and grandchildren.

[Last modified October 29, 2007, 22:32:18]