US Navy Chief Boatswain Mate Glenn Iris Burleson was born in Okaloosa County, Florida on December 14, 1906, the son of Charles Ezra Burleson (1883-1959) and LaMinda "Minda" Ruth Johnson (1885-1968). His father was born and raised in Pensacola and became a seaman early on. By 1920, he had become the master of a steamboat and by 1927 was working as an engineer for E. E. Saunders Company. By 1940 he was still working as a seaman with the merchant marines and by 1945 he was a captain of an Army transport.
Glenn was also the grandson of Simeon Wilder Burleson (1847-1907) and Rebecca Ann Bolton (1847-1938). Simeon was born in Barbour County, Alabama but by 1860 was living in Boggy Bayou, Walton County, Florida. During the Civil War he found himself enlisting at Ft. Barrancas on December 13, 1863, in Company "A" of the 1st Florida Union Cavalry. He was promoted to corporal the following July as his regiment fought in northwest Florida and southern Alabama against the 6th Alabama and 15th Confederate Cavalry. He would muster out at the end of the war in Tallahassee on November 17, 1865. For his services to his nation, he was granted a pension for the rest of his life and for Rebecca after he passed away.
As to his grandson Glenn, he had remarried to Clara Alice Pippin however, there is little information about his formative years. But we do know that in 1940 he was working for E. E. Saunders Company on South Palafox as a laborer where his father had also worked at one time. He and Clara were renting a house at 213 S. Alcaniz Street at the time. After WWII began, he entered the Navy as a Chief Boatswain Mate in New Orleans. There he would pass away on August 1, 1943, of natural causes after ten days of illness. His remains were sent home to Pensacola, Florida and buried in the Myrtle Grove Methodist Cemetery.











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