Dr. Ada Puryear Burnette, who dedicated her life to educational leadership, passed away on Friday, February 4, 2022, in Winston Salem, North Carolina, her hometown. Her daughter was by her side. Born Ada Mae Peoples, in Darlington, South Carolina, to Floia Peoples and Theodore Lester, Ada attended and was class valedictorian at both 14th Street Elementary School and Atkins High School in Winston Salem.

Ada graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, in 1953, and was an exchange student at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania during her senior year. Upon graduation, Ada began her career, teaching high school mathematics at Atkins High. She married in 1954 and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she taught in the Chicago Public Schools and at the University of Chicago, where she earned a Masters of Arts in Reading, in 1958. She became assistant professor and founding director of the reading clinic at Norfolk State University, in Norfolk, Virginia, and an assistant professor at Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. After moving to Tallahassee, Florida in 1970, she became the Administrator for Early Childhood Education for the State of Florida, the first African-American person to hold an administrative post in the state since Reconstruction.

In 1986, Ada earned a PhD from Florida State University. She went on to work at Bethune Cookman College, Valdosta State University, and Florida A&M University, where she served as Director of the FAMU Developmental Research School, professor and Chairperson of the Department of Educational Leadership, President of the Faculty Senate, and Professor Emeritus, among other roles, including developing a PhD program in educational leadership that she took to universities in Ghana.

Ada's creative endeavors included hosting a radio show for WOWD-FM in Tallahassee in the 1970s, writing a weekly column for The Capital Outlook in the 1990s, and participating in numerous speaking engagements at the University of Oxford and elsewhere.

Ada was active in her community, serving on the Board of Directors for the Tallahassee Coalition for the Homeless (now known as the Big Bend Homeless Coalition), other Board of Directors for the Florida Society of Certified Public Managers, as Director of the Florida Chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and more. She was a member of The Drifters, The Links, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, in which she became a Golden Soror. Ada received many honors, including the Florida State University Phi Kappa Phi Presidential Medallion. She was a C.K. Steele Honoree, and was named a Trailblazer by The Oasis Center for Women & Girls.

She's survived by two children, Paul Lionel (and Brenda) Puryear, Jr., of Fairfield, Connecticut, and Paula Lynn Puryear (and Preston Holmes), of Los Angeles, California; three grandchildren, Eric (and Nicole), Amanda and Sarah; and three great grandchildren, Lily, Leo and Lacey.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 12, 2002 at 2:30pm at New Light Missionary Baptist Church, 1535 E 15th St., Winston Salem, NC 27105. A viewing, from 2pm to 2:30pm, will precede the services. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Ada's name to Big Bend Homeless Coalition, via their website, bigbendhc.org.