When I was a child, our Great-Aunt Laura was a missionary in Africa. She came home to Minnesota every few years for a visit and brought us exotic trinkets from the French Cameroon, where she was stationed. Her stories and photos of orphaned black children seemed to me to be something out of an adventure book. I recall on one visit, she taught us to count to ten in an African dialect. I was quite young, but still remember the word for the number ten was pronounced ‘boo’.
Laura Evelina Burton was born 12 July 1902 in Minneapolis, MN, to new parents Gustav and Emma Burton. The family lived at 4122 Colfax North, in Minneapolis, according to Laura’s baptism record with Emmanuel Lutheran Church.
Soon after Laura was born, the family moved to the Hopkins/Minnetonka Township area where Gus had a job with Justus Lumber. Gus was active in the community and by 1914 he was a Deacon with the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Gethsemane Church. This church eventually came to be known as Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Hopkins, MN. The family’s interest and participation in church activities likely influenced Laura’s decision to commit to mission work.
Laura’s childhood and teen years appear to have been uneventful. She attended Hopkins High School and graduated in 1924. Teenage Laura had friends who were serving as missionaries in China and she had dreams of following them there. She enrolled at the Lutheran Bible Institute to prepare. In 1927, Laura entered the Swedish Hospital nursing program, with her younger sister Florence, for a three-year course of study. After graduation as a nurse, she returned to the Lutheran Bible Institute and completed her training there.
Meanwhile, church interest in overseas missions intensified in the 1930’s. The work in China was closed by this time, but there were opportunities at a mission in French Cameroon (sometimes spelled Cameroun), Africa. In 1935, the church commissioned one of Gethsemane’s daughters for service in West Africa.
Laura Burton, daughter of 50-year Church Council veteran Gust Burton and his wife Emma, was commissioned by Gethsemane’s Pastor Sandberg to serve as a medical missionary in Africa.
After a year of French study in Canada, Laura was ready to go. According to a newspaper article from that time, Laura was to go to Africa by way of France, where she would have an additional six months of French language study. She assumed her post in 1936 with the support provided by Gethsemane Lutheran Church, who sponsored her food, bandages, medicines, and expenses for the next 37 years.
This was an extraordinary life choice for an American female in the 1930’s. Laura’s willingness to embark on an adventure of this magnitude was unusual at a time when women did not have careers and were generally limited to being housewives and mothers. She was clearly intelligent and motivated to have been so thoroughly educated and prepared and willing to accept this opportunity to explore the world as a missionary nurse.
Laura was a quiet young woman who learned to be bold when necessary. When mothers in Africa died of malaria, it had been customary to bury their babies alive with them to appease evil spirits. Laura spoke out against the custom, rescued the babies and brought them to the mission, where an orphanage had been established.
Eventually, Laura’s permanent station was located at Mei Ganga, 585 miles inland. There, she ran a dispensary, taught prenatal care, and treated a variety of tropical illnesses. Prior to Mei Ganga, she moved from station to station and needed transportation. So in the 1950’s, Gethsemane Church raised funds to buy her a van. They shipped it to Africa from the United States, no small feat at that time. Her chauffeur was Paul Darmin, who went on to attend seminary and later became the President of the Lutheran Church in Cameroon. At the time of Laura’s death in 1989, Paul paid tribute to Laura as “our spiritual mother”.
During her visit to her Minnesota home in 1969, Laura was the featured guest speaker on a tour of dozens of churches throughout Minnesota. I surmise this was a fundraising trip to promote interest in, and support for, mission work. She received a lot of favorable press in the local newspapers at that time.
Laura retired from mission work in her late 60’s, after having served as a missionary nurse in Africa for almost four decades. She never married. Instead, she dedicated her life to serving others less fortunate and to sharing her excitement for the church in faraway places. Laura died at age 86 on 8 January 1989 and is buried at Grandview Park Cemetery in Hopkins, Minnesota, near her parents Gus and Emma.
RUNS IN THE FAMILY 