Remembering Joe Ella Brown Burton

April 8, 1934 – September 4, 2022

Legendary Monroe City Schools Educator and Choreographer, Joe Ella Brown Burton, passed away peacefully at the home of her youngest daughter in McDonough, GA early Sunday morning, September 4, 2022. Mrs. Burton is best remembered as the choreographer of J.S. Clark Elementary's 1960s renowned dance group the "Tantalizing Clarkettes'' and Carroll High School's "Joettes." She is the youngest of two daughters born to Joseph Alfred Brown and Mary Ellen Gordon Brown of Charleston, SC. This Georgetown born, Charleston raised, South Carolina native has exhibited her phenomenal spirit, heart, and talent from the basketball court to the stage to the classroom. She was the niece of pioneer, Morehouse Parish public health nurse Harriet Henrietta Gordon Foster, for whom the community room at Monroe's Ray Oliver Wright Health Unit is named, and Dr. Madison Wright Foster, pioneering St. Francis physician, and the Foster in the Foster Johnson Infirmary on Grambling State University's campus. She is also the grandniece of Professor Madison James Foster, a philanthropic pastor and educator whose namesakes include Monroe's Madison James Foster Elementary and Foster Heights housing community. Left to cherish fond memories are her daughters - Angelique C. Burton (retired Neville High School educator) and Francell O. Burton-Rayford (Roger), and grandchildren - Sydney V. Alston and Kennedy M. Rayford. Services for Joe Ella Brown Burton are Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 11:00 AM at Faith Harvest Baptist Church, 3701 Nutland Rd. in Monroe, LA. Visitation is Friday, September 16, 2022, 12:00 NOON - 5:00 PM at Miller Funeral Home, 2932 Renwick St., Monroe, LA. Remembering Joe Ella Brown Burton - An Evening of Tributes, will be held Friday, September 16, 2022 at 6:00 PM at Faith Harvest Baptist Church. Interment services to be held at Mulhearn Memorial Park, 623 US Hwy 80, Monroe, LA.