2024 Honorees

The 2024 Distinguished Former School Board Member is Joy Taylor. 

 

Joy is a longtime resident of the Burnet Community, and served on the Burnet CISD Board of Trustees from 1977 to 1980. During her tenure, the district addressed growth and expanding opportunities for students, that included passing the bond built the newest addition at Burnet Elementary.  Also while on the board, the trustees had to deal with the issue of the horsehead being hung on the flag pole as part of the Battle of Burnet County.  If you know that story, then you can understand the significance of that time on the board.  Joy and her Husband Paul owned and operated White’s Auto Store from 1965 to 1978.  After that you could find Joy keeping everything and everyone in order at Fry Motors. 

 

Besides her work on the board, Joy’s fingerprints can be found all over this community because of her servant heart. She served on the Burnet County Heritage Society, the Herman Brown Free Library Board, and the Burnet County Historical Commission.  She also volunteered many hours with Fort Croghan, the Thrift Store, Main Street Bethlehem, and on several church committees at the First United Methodist Church. Her love of school, education, and her daughter, Lynn, kept her busy in the local PTA, where she was awarded an honorary PTA Lifetime Membership.  If you were lucky enough to experience one of her infamous Halloween Carnivals, you indeed had a great childhood.  

 

She spent her life focused on her family and the Burnet community, and has been recognized with several awards that include: Burnet Honor Citizen, Honorary Lt General for Ft Croghan, First United Methodist Church Woman of the Year, Burnet Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen, and Burnet County Women’s Forum- Woman of the Year. Joy recently moved to San Antonio to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren.

The 2024 Distinguished Former Burnet High School Athlete is Mitchell Maxwell. 

The 2024 Distinguished Burnet High School Graduate is Dr. Monica Lopes Horton.

 

The Hall of Honor’s Distinguished Burnet High School Graduate, Dr. Monica Lopes Horton, is a 1990 Burnet High School Honors Graduate. In high school, she was a member of the National Honor Society, the Burnet HS band and was a library aide.  She excelled in many areas and received academic awards too numerous to mention them all. She was a State UIL Academic Qualifier for 2 years, and a State UIL Solo and Ensemble Qualifier. She received the Governor’s Recognition Award, was a Bluebonnet Girls State Citizen, Received the Presidential Academic Fitness Award, and was a Who’s Who Among American High School Students and in Music. 

 

After High School, she attended the University of Texas at Austin where she earned a Bachelor's of Science degree with honors, and then an MD from the Texas A&M College of Medicine. She completed an Internal Medicine Residency, Geriatric Fellowship, and a Master’s of Science from the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.  She is Board Certified in Internal and Geriatric Medicine.   

 

Since 2003, Dr. Horton has been employed by the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio.  Up until 2012, she was the Medical Director of the Geriatric and Evaluation Management Clinic at the Audie L Murphy VA Hospital.  Wanting to have a more active role in patient care, she transferred to the North Central Federal Clinic to serve as a staff physician. Regardless of where she was in her career, she has worked tirelessly to help our Veterans maintain and improve their quality of life.  

 

Monica is married to her husband John and they have two daughters, Kathryn and Sarah. Her parents still live and are active in the Burnet Community.

The 2024 Distinguished Former BCISD Employee is Billie Burkett Miller.

 

The Honoree for Distinguished Former Burnet CISD Employee retired in 1994 with a total of 40 years of service in education. Although her initial degree was in Business, her father encouraged her to peruse a minor in education leading her to a long career serving students, 33 of those years in Burnet CISD.  

 

Initially hired in Burnet ISD in 1948, our honoree served as a Commercial Teacher whose responsibilities included teaching typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, business, and statistics. She left Burnet for a couple of years to teach in San Saba and Lometa, but returned to Burnet to finish out her successful career.    

 

Shortly after returning to Burnet, she was asked to start a counseling program for the entire county that would include counseling services through a CoOp for Burnet, Bertram, Briggs and Marble Falls, as this was prior to the consolidation.  She went back to school at night and on weekends to gain her counseling certification and worked as a high school counselor at Burnet High School while going to school.  Once certified, she started the first county-wide counseling program for all of the schools in the county touching the lives of countless students. 

 

Because of her leadership, dedication and commitment, this CoOp program pioneered the establishment of, and became the foundation for counseling services in the district.  After Consolidation and the ending of the CoOp, our honoree continued her career in the Burnet Schools exclusively, and continued to provide much needed counseling services to all students in the district until her retirement in 1994. One of her fondest memories was the Career Day that she organized for all of the schools. 

 

Our honoree was a longtime member of the Texas School Counselors Association and was sought after to speak at local businesses and clubs regarding counseling services. She is a longtime member of the Bertram and Burnet Church of Christ.  She recently said she still misses working because she loved what she did.  The district and county campuses were certainly a better place because of the passion she had for counseling.  Our honoree continues to live in Burnet, and has one Daughter, Jamie, and a granddaughter she adores.  Jamie and her family have relocated back to Burnet to be near her mom.