Lorraine Burks

Lorraine Marie Burks, 75, passed away peacefully June 11, in the year of our Lord 2022.

Lorraine, known to family and friends simply as Rainie, lived an extraordinary life. She began life with her parents, Etelvina Ochoa and Guadalupe Sanchez in her hometown just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. While still a young girl, they moved to the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. After skipping a grade in high school and graduating early, she landed a job in Beverly Hills at the world’s first credit card company. It was the 1960’s and a big city; she would recount stories like seeing the Doors play the Whiskey hanging out with folk singers and basically lived the coolest 20’s ever. She was a boss—literally. This Mexican-American woman leveraged her grit to tackle many obstacles, rising in her career to serve as a corporate executive in both financial services and healthcare. Her employees loved her. In part, this was fueled by her charisma, passion, wit and wisdom. She was also immensely creative.

Along her journey, always at her side, was her entrepreneurial husband and surviving spouse, Forrest (aka Gene) Burks. The two met happen stance. Rainie and her friends, stopped to give a lift to a young man in the Navy trying to get from his base in Long Beach to see his brother living in San Diego. They were inseparable ever after. They raised their children, Brandie and Jeffrey in Southern California. Eventually, they moved to Abilene, Texas where her husband, Gene, was born and raised. After her retirement, she devoted her time to art, her Christadelphian bible group, and of course to her loving husband. She was a proud grandmother to her surviving grandkids, Nate, Sirenna, Diego, and Gabriel who currently reside in Ann Arbor Michigan. She was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings John Sanchez and Priscilla Sikora. 

Visitation will be held 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at The Hamil Family Funeral Home. 

Funeral Services will be held at 10AM, June 15 at The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road. Burial will follow at Potosi Cemetery, 2782 Potosi Rd, Abilene, TX 79602. A celebration of life reception afterward will be held at Potosi Live, 897 FM 1750 Abilene, TX 79602.

Pallbearers will be Tommy Burks, Greg Parks, Chase Price, Derick Price, Diego Sanchez Burks, Gabriel Sanchez Burks.