Johnnie Mae Burney, 74, of Jacksonville Florida born July 23rd, 1946 passed away peacefully on July 1st, 2021, just 22 days prior to her 75th birthday. Johnnie Mae was born to Rufus Dennis and Mary Jane Smith and later adopted by Peter and Emma Burney. Johnnie would inevitably become a welcomed member of a core family group after our mother met and married our father. She loved her mother (Mary Jane) and stepfather (Oscar Brown) very much and attended Mt. Ararat Baptist Church with him and sang in the choir. Family was very important to Johnnie Mae. She never married and had no children of her own, but she would step in and help to raise seven siblings brothers and sisters, and later nieces and nephews after the death of our father in 1961 and mother in 2003. She was a woman of many talents and skills from the making of wedding dresses to artificial floral arrangements to the building of room additions, but none greater than her ability to love others. She graduated from Northwestern Junior-Senior High and retired from the Duval County Public School System becoming a full-time caregiver for our mother.

Johnnie Mae is preceded in death by- parents Rufus Dennis, Mary Jane (Smith) Brown, Oscar Brown (stepfather); Peter and Emma Burney (adoptive parents); half brothers James E. Brown and Rufus E. Dennis.

She leaves behind; half-sisters Jacquelyn Brown, Tongla Pickett (Anthony), Shirley M. Dennis, half brothers: Sylvester Brown (Gwendolyn), Osborn Brown (Alnita), Larry Brown (Sandra), Darrell Burney (Sherry),  and a host of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and friends. The public viewing for Ms. Burney will be July 9, 2021, from 5:00- 7:00 pm

Services will be Saturday, July 10, 2021, at 11:00 am at The Edith H Weston Memorial Chapel