Olive Burnham Ferrell

Olive Burnham Ferrell died peacefully at her home with family members present on August 15, 2016 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Ninety-five years old at the time of her death, Olive lived a long, venturesome, and exemplary life. She saw much of the world, and directly witnessed much of the history of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Born on May 15, 1921 in Walworth, England to Thomas Burnham-Packham and Eleanor Mary Young, Olive was raised in a classic English working class family. Her father was an oft out-of-work stage actor and race horse jockey, and so the family was held together by her hard working mother. Olive grew up in London during the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. She did well in school, finishing at age sixteen and immediately started work at Freeman's Limited, a department store. At age seventeen and until the end of WWII, Olive worked at Wimbledon General Hospital. Throughout her life, Olive retained vivid memories of listening to Churchill's speeches over the "wireless," running for shelters when Nazi aircraft bombed London, carrying precious packets of the new miracle drug penicillin to the hospital, and dancing in the famous nightclubs of London. In 1944, Olive met her husband of 63 years, Bill Ferrell, an American B-17 pilot stationed in East Anglia, England with the 8th Air Force. They were married in 1945. Her wedding dress was made from a silk parachute. In 1946, Olive came to the United States on the ocean liner S.S. Bridgeport which had been pressed into service to bring the new English brides to their new homes in America. She traveled by train across country to join Bill at his home in Independence, Kansas where they began their family. Shortly after the birth of their son, Kevin, in Independence in 1947, the family moved to Duncan, Oklahoma in connection with the start of Bill's career with the Sun Oil Company. Their first daughter, Meriel, was born in Duncan in 1948. In 1954, the family moved to Conway, Arkansas. Following the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, Olive took interest in the civil rights movement, particularly the integration of Little Rock Central in 1957. She made a point of teaching her children the value of racial justice and equality. While living in Conway, two more daughters were born, Valerie in 1958 and Lisa in 1963. Olive and Bill were truly members of the Greatest Generation, living the kind of lives which contributed so much to family, community and country. They were hardworking, dedicated, loyal, considerate, thrifty and selfless and passed these values onto their children. They provided generously for their children. Each of their four children obtained advanced degrees and enjoyed much greater opportunity than was afforded them. In 1964, the family moved to North Little Rock. In 2004, Olive and Bill moved to the house in Little Rock where Olive lived the remainder of her years. After the children had left the nest, Olive and Bill enjoyed travel, revisiting England and Europe as well as other parts of the world. While young, Olive did not have the means to attend college, so later in life she took classes at Cambridge and Oxford. Her love of reading and education kept her mind sharp until the end. Olive is survived by son, Kevin and daughter-in-law, Fredrica, and their two sons, Bill and Paul; daughter, Meriel and her son, Jared; daughter, Valerie and son-in-law Brian Campbell, and their sons, Ian and Connor; and daughter, Lisa and son-in-law, Jim Jackson and their children, Adam, Luke and Olivia. Memorial service officiated by Monsignor Francis Malone is 1 p.m., Friday, August 19, 2016 at Christ the King Catholic Church, 4000 North Rodney Parham, Little Rock, Arkansas. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to the PKD Foundation, 1001 E. 101st Terrace, Suite 220, Kansas City, Mo. 64131, pkdcure.org. Online guestbook: www.rollerfuneralhomes.com/chenal.