Olive Burt

Olive Woolley Burt (1894–1981) was an American teacher and journalist, known as a folklorist for her collection of murder ballads. She was also a prolific author of books.[1]

Life

She was born in Ann Arbor on 26 May 1894, the daughter of Jed F. Wooley and his wife Agnes Forsyth: she had eight brothers. In 1897 the family settled in Salt Lake City. In 1913 she became an elementary school teacher in Washington County, Utah, later moving to Garfield County, Utah. She wrote newspaper article.[1]

In 1918 Olive graduated B.A. from the University of Utah, and in 1922 she married Cyril Ray Burt, with whom she had a son and two daughters. In 1927 she moved back to Salt Lake City, and began work at The Salt Lake Tribune. She later worked as an editor on the Deseret News.[1] There she took it badly that the News would not print her favorable review of Juanita Brooks's edition of the diaries of John D. Lee.[2]

Olive Burt died on 10 September 1981.[1]

Collecting murder ballads

Burt became interested in true crime stories while on The Salt Lake Tribune. She did extensive research on murder ballads and their associated narratives, with fieldwork collecting of unpublished material and a letter to each state historical society. Her 1958 book American Murder Ballads and Their Stories received in 1959 a special Edgar Award.[1] A review in Western Folklore by John Greenway, largely positive, noted the absence of detailed sourcing, and cautioned that newspaper reports of murders (which he said were a major source) were often inaccurate.[3] Minrose Gwin comments that her coverage of African-American material is sparse, though it does mention "Stagolee"; and notes her proposal that "John Brown's Body" should qualify. She further suggests that Burt's remark that the murders in ballads were intra-racial would not apply by the 1960s.[4]

Books

Burt wrote over 50 books, publishing one or two per year over a long period. Many of these were aimed at children, or for instructional purposes. They included a biography of Sarah Josepha Hale, Sarah J. Hale: First Woman Editor (1960).[1][5]

Notes
  1. Ann Reichman, 8. Olive Woolley Burt, Collector of Murder Ballads, pp. 60–66 in David Stanley (ed.), Folklore in Utah: A History and Guide to Resources, 2004 University Press of Colorado, Utah State University Press JSTOR j.ctt46nxj8.12
  2. Bagley, Will (2012). Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 462. ISBN 978-0-8061-8684-9.
  3. John Greenway, Reviewed Work: American Murder Ballads and Their Stories by Olive Woolley Burt, Western Folklore Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1959), pp. 264–265. Published by: Western States Folklore Society JSTOR 1497732
  4. Gwin, Minrose (2013). Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement. University of Georgia Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-8203-3563-6.
  5. Burt, Olive Woolley (1960). First Woman Editor, Sarah J. Hale. Messner.
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