Willie Miles Burns, Johnson Publishing Company vice president, dies in Chicago

Jet, Feb 26, 1996

Funeral services were held recently in Chicago for Willie Miles Bums, an executive at Johnson Publishing Company.

For the last 50 years, she served as vice president and director of agencies for Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, which publishes Ebony, Jet and EM Magazines. Mrs. Burns was responsible for billing customers and preparing the annual Publishers Statement for the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

She was one of the first women and one of the first Black women to serve as a major executive of a national magazine publishing company.

"Johnson Publishing Company has lost a pioneer, and I have lost a friend and relative," said Ebony/Jet/EM Publisher John H. Johnson, her cousin. "Mrs. Burns was a quiet pioneer who was totally dedicated to excellence and who never accepted less than equality in the business world or anywhere else."

Born in Lake Village, AR, Mrs. Burns attended Dunbar High School in Little Rock and graduated from Arkansas A&M College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She did graduate work at the University of Michigan and joined Johnson Publishing Company in 1946, five months after the publication of the first issue of Ebony.

After moving to Chicago, she met and married William Burns, who preceded her in death.

She was a devoted member of St. John Baptist Church in Arkansas City, AR, and the Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago.

In addition to her business activities, Mrs. Burns was a major community leader and a pioneer advocate of health care. She served as a board member of the Sears YMCA, the Cook County Hospitals Governing Commission and the State Street Business and Professional Women's Club.

In addition to Publisher Johnson, she is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Mary M. Banks of Belleville, IL, Mrs. Rhodie Miles of Arcadia, OK, and Mrs. Lillie Barnett of Redwood City, CA; a niece, Mrs. Ethel Mae White of Inkster, MI; a nephew, Parnell Miles of Kansas City, MO; and many friends, including her longtime assistant Jean Williams.

Services were held at the Unity Funeral Home in Chicago. Burial was in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL.