Robert L. Burns
Robert L. Burns | |
|---|---|
4th district | |
| In office July 1, 1929 – June 30, 1945 | |
| Preceded by | William M. Hughes |
| Succeeded by | Harold A. Henry |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 12, 1876 Knoxville, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | March 17, 1955 (aged 79) Los Angeles, California |
| Political party | Republican |
Robert Louis Burns (January 12, 1876 – March 17, 1955) was an American politician, attorney, and businessman who served as a member of the
Early life
Burns was born January 12, 1876, in Knoxville, Iowa, the son of William E. Burns of Erie, Pennsylvania, and Dulcina Elizabeth French of Indiana. He had three brothers. He graduated from high school in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Career
He later became a lawyer and worked as the business manager of The Hutchinson News. He also engaged in coal mining and the telephone business.[2]
He and a brother began a flour mill that grew into the Consolidated Flour Mills of Kansas, His company was the first in the nation to introduce the eight-hour day for mill employees. In 1916, he retired and moved to Los Angeles, where he joined the Los Angeles Country Club. Burns was a Presbyterian and a Republican.[2][3][4]
Politics
Kansas
Burns was on the
Los Angeles
Burns first ran for election to the
As a school board member, he attended the unveiling of a portrait of the late school superintendent Susan Miller Dorsey in 1929[8] and cast one of the favorable votes the same year to purchase the surplus property of the University of California, Los Angeles campus on Vermont Avenue to be used by Los Angeles City College.[9]
City Council
Burns was first elected to represent the
In January 1930, Burns and seven other council members who had voted in favor of granting a rock-crushing permit in the Santa Monica Mountains were unsuccessfully targeted for recall on the grounds that the eight "have conspired with Alphonzo Bell, Samuel Traylor and Chapin A. Day, all multi-millionaires, to grant this group a special spot zoning permit to crush and ship from the high-class residential section of Santa Monica, limestone and rock for cement."[12]
Burns was one of the six council members who in July 1931 lost a vote to appeal a judge's decision ordering an end to racial restrictions in city-operated swimming pools. The pools had previously been restricted by race to certain days or hours.[13]
Burns was appointed to the
Personal life
Burns was married to Sarah Bertram of Kentucky on October 11, 1898; they had four sons, William B., Robert J., Harry F. and John A.[2][16]
Burns died March 17, 1955, in his home at 672 South Serrano Avenue, between Wilshire Boulevard and Seventh Street.[17] He was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Notes
- Kansas State Librarysaid in 2011 that there was no record of a Robert Burns having been a member there before 1915.
References
- ^ ProQuest 166769854.
- ^ a b c d "Burns, Robert L." (PDF) (reference file). Los Angeles Public Library.
- ProQuest 161425366.
- ProQuest 162311190.
- ProQuest 161428140.
- ProQuest 161556655.
- ProQuest 162199444.
- ProQuest 162153504.
- ProQuest 162236764.
- ProQuest 163355625.
- ProQuest 163330773.
- ProQuest 162375566.
- ProQuest 162456473.
- ProQuest 167584611.
- ^ "Map and review at Nickelodeon.com".
- ProQuest 162437777.
- ^ "Location of his home on Mapping L.A.".
External links
- Portrait of Robert L. Burns, City Council President, Los Angeles, California, 1935. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.