The 1893 electoral roll confirms Oona Emma Kaikorai Rd Roslyn domestic duties
Note: Also signed as 47 Oona Burton - transcribed as Dona Burton
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Oona Emma Burton was born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1867 – the daughter of Alfred Henry Burton, a photographer, and Lydia Taylor. (See 160 Lydia Burton)
She emigrated to Otago about 1869 with her family and they settled in Dunedin.
She attended Kaikorai Primary School and Otago Girls High School.
Oona did not marry and when she signed the suffrage petition she was living with her family in Kaikorai Valley Road.
She was active in the St John Ambulance Nursing Corps, the Dunedin Shakespeare Club and assisted her father giving voice production and elocution lessons.
In 1900 Oona along with a Miss E Gresham opened Colinswood, a private hospital and convalescent home in Macandrew Bay, Dunedin.
In 1914 she was appointed as an instructor of elocution at the winter school for teachers at Greymouth for two weeks.
She moved to Auckland about 1925 where she was active in the League of New Zealand Penwomen, performed in radio shows on 1YA and wrote plays.
She died on 3 August 1942 at a private hospital in Auckland & was cremated, her ashes are buried in the Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Auckland Council https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions