Edward "Ed" Charles Burkett

8/11/45-12/30/2024

Ed died for the second time on December 30th being reunited with his best friend and mother Jean Burmeister.  Ed gained an additional 6 years of life after becoming possibly the first person to survive being resuscitated 44 times during a heart attack.  A google search for Ed Burkett Heart Attack will take you to the news story outlining his miracle.

Ed was born in Dowagiac Michigan to a family who raised and raced horses.  This began his lifelong love for everything horse related.  Ed served in the Navy and spent time in Japan as well as Vietnam where he was a radioman.  Ed moved back to Decatur and started a family having two daughters.  Ed moved to Wisconsin in 1979 and worked various jobs, business startups and fathered a son.  He coached multiple of his children's sports and was active in bringing Packers to speak at the Marathon Athletic Dinners.  He lived in Marathon until 1992 when he moved to Lewisville Texas to fulfill a dream of reinventing himself as a cowboy.

Ed ran multiple stables boarding horses, training horses and gave horse riding lessons.  Ed ran multiple events to benefit local charities.  He enjoyed hosting "cowboy campfires" and bringing in storytellers for his customers.  In his off time, he loved to sing karaoke and later in life found another love for golfing.  After his heart attack Ed volunteered at Medical City Denton and often credited them for saving his life.  Even during his time in Texas, he never stopped being a Green Bay Packers fan and relished their many victories over the Cowboys during that time.  He also was an avid fan of Navy Football, NASCAR racing, the Milwaukee Brewers and Pro Golf.  Ed was rarely seen without his pipe and smoked it for 60 years.  Ultimately, even a lung cancer diagnosis in mid-November didn't prevent him from continuing to smoke his pipe until the very end.

Survivors include his three children Carrie (Uhlig), Christy (Gresens) and Casey.  Stepmother Gloria (Houtman).  His Brothers Jim (Dotson), Tim, Tom, Bruce, and Kelly.  Sisters Celina (Scmidt) and Jan (Wilson).  8 Grand Children and 10 great Grandchildren.

Ed was preceded in death by his father Charles, mother Jean (Burmeister), step father Martin (Burmeister) and sister Karen (Smith).

Ed will have private family celebrations in Wisconsin and Michigan in remembrance.

The family would like to send sincere appreciation to all the staff at Medical City Denton for their work with Ed during his heart attack, as well as Medical City Lewisville for their compassionate end of life care.  Also to his two greatest friends in the world Karen and Rod Smith, whose companionship and kindness to him the last 30+ years was what he treasured most about his time in Texas.