Vernice Lorena Forman McBurney was born in Yankton, Oregon to John Latimer Chestnut and Mary Ethel Chestnut on September 23, 1914 during the 10 months her father worked as a logger there. Like her parents, she was a lifelong member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and lived most of her life in Quinter, Kansas. Vernice peacefully left this earth on November 16, 2016 at the age of 102 to be with the Lord.
Although her life wasn’t always easy, it was happy. In her musings about growing up during the depression, she wrote, “We ate many meals of homemade bread and milk. We thoroughly enjoyed life without realizing we were poor.” Vernice graduated from Quinter High School in 1933 and shortly afterward moved to Denver, Colorado. Sometime between 1934-1936 while sharing a ride on her way back to Denver after a visit home, she met Rhea Hulett Forman. They were married in December 1937. While in Denver, she worked at various jobs including working at Lakeside Amusement Park and running Forman’s Cafe and Creamery. By 1947, they had three boys; Rhea, John, and Tom.
Although looking at Vernice you would see a tiny, sweet, smiling lady who always looked out for others and was generous to a fault, we all knew that underneath that soft exterior was a woman of steel. Her life was not an easy one, but her faith and trust in a God of providence sustained her and allowed hope eternal to shine through even in the darkest of times. Mother had a quiet strength that saw her through loss, including the death of her six-year-old sister Madge, her husband, Rhea, in March of 1950, her step-daughter Mary Jane, granddaughter Tammy, great-grandson Michael, and second husband Waldo McBurney. She also took her disabled mother into her home and tenderly cared for her until the Lord called Grandmother Chestnut home.
In 1955, she took her three fatherless boys back to Kansas to be under the guidance and influence of her father John and the boys’ uncles, Don and Calvin. With the help of her father, she ran the Dairy Delight in downtown Quinter. Vernice loved to write, so it wasn’t unusual that when she learned of her dad’s cancer, she chose to pour out her grief on paper; and at the top of the page put a quote by Henri Amiel: “It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man but what he is.” What was true of her dad can also be said of her.
In 1961, an elder from her church knocked on her door requested her hand in marriage. She and Ralph Waldo McBurney were married on April 12, 1962 and Vernice gained two more daughters and a son: Ruth, Mary Jane, and Kenneth. Waldo and Mother ran a honey business selling honey long after most people their age had retired. Her home was a hub of hospitality and many enjoyed the produce and canned goods from their garden and her wonderful pot roast. Her children and grandchildren always anticipated her kind and thoughtful letters, as well as her hand-sewn quilts and stuffed animals. After Waldo took up competitive running, they began traveling to races in places as far away as England, Scotland, and Puerto Rico. It wasn’t long before she ventured off of the sidelines to run and compete herself. She won the bronze medal in the 100-meter dash at the World Athletics Championships in Puerto Rico at the age of 88. Once, worried because we could not reach her for several days, we found out we had not heard from her because she was busy practicing shot put.
She dearly loved her parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren and never missed an opportunity to tell them. She never had any daughters of her own, but she loved and treated her daughters-in-law so well that each believes in her heart that she is Mother’s favorite. She was the rare mother-in-law that was always ready with a word of praise or encouragement and was never known to interfere, demand, or criticize.
She lived with Waldo in Quinter, Kansas until his passing in July 2009. Her sons moved her to Altamonte Springs, Florida after Waldo’s death, where she resided surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren until going home to be with the Lord.
Though in her later years she could not recall things in the present, she never lost the optimism and joy that so characterized her all of her life. In her last years when asked what day it was, she always responded that it must be the Sabbath, her favorite day. If you asked which son had come to visit, she would respond “all three of my boys came.”
Also preceding her passing were her parents, John and Ethel Chestnut, her husbands Rhea Forman and Waldo McBurney, her brother Calvin Chestnut and his wife Elizabeth, her sister Oneita Chestnut McWilliams and her husband Don, her sister Vera Chestnut Rice and her husband Lee, and sister Madge Chestnut, step-daughter Mary Jane Boyle, granddaughter Tammy Boyle, and great-grandson Michael Linders. She is survived by her children: Rhea Forman and his wife, Keay, of Ocala, FL; John Forman and his wife, Lorraine, of Chattanooga, TN; Tom Forman and his wife, Nancy, of Altamonte Springs, FL; Kenneth McBurney and his wife, Virginia, of Beaver Falls, PA; Ruth Mann and husband, Bob, of Colorado Springs, CO; 18 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 23, at the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Quinter. Burial will be in Baker Township Cemetery, Quinter.
Visitation will be Tuesday, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the funeral home in Quinter.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Donations to the church may be sent to Schmitt Funeral Home, 901 South Main, Quinter, KS 67752.
Condolences may be left for the family by signing the online guest book HERE.