Mary Lou Masterson Burke, cattle industry leader, dies at age 80
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Mary Lou Masterson Burke, a cattle rancher well known for her expertise in water and private property rights, died March 13 in John Day, Ore. She was 80.
Burke was born July 3, 1935, in Ellensburg, and grew up on the historic Masterson Ranch, homesteaded by her great-grandfather in 1880, in the Teanaway Valley.
She married Pat Burke in 1956 and they ranched and raised their family together in the Teanaway until moving to Fox, Ore., near John Day, in 2006. The family operates ranches near Fox and Ellensburg.
Mary Burke was the first woman president of the Washington State Cattlemen’s Association and was past president of Kittitas County Cattlewomen and Kittitas County Cattlemen. She served on committees of the National Cattlemen’s Association.
“She’s been friends of my grandparents longer than I’ve been alive. She was always an inspiration to me, encouraged me to become an attorney and mentored me,” said Toni Meacham, a Connell attorney active in agricultural issues.
“She would say, ‘Go forth and do good.’ She always told me that,” Meacham said.
Marriage interrupted Burke’s college career but she became self taught in water and private property issues and law and became a knowledgeable resource to legislators and attorneys in the 1980s and 1990s, Meacham said.
She testified before Congress multiple times on agricultural issues and people across the nation consulted her, she said.
Her interest in law was nurtured when she went to work in a law office in the 1970s when cattle prices were low. She had a quick grasp of issues and written material.
“She read the whole ESA (Endangered Species Act) and could digest it, remember it and see the impacts,” Meacham said.
She had a distinctive voice, a way with words and “could insult people and they wouldn’t even know they’d been insulted,” Meacham said. “She didn’t speak frivolously. She always had a point and would get to it even when you thought she was rambling.”
Burke is survived by her husband, Pat, of Fox, and sons Joe, of Fox, and James, of Ellensburg, and other family members.
A funeral service was set for 11 a.m. March 18 at the Ellensburg Presbyterian Church. Memorial contributions may be made to the Presbyterian Church of Mt. Vernon, Ore., or the Washington Cattlemen’s Association Endowment Trust Fund. Arrangements are by Brookside Funeral Home.