Michelle Rene Burdett-Kane, beloved mother and daughter, passed away while in hospice care in Kennewick, Wash., on Sept. 19th, 2023, after a battle with cancer at the age of 57.
Michelle was born on December 28th, 1965, to Larry and Lynn Burdett, at Our Lady of Lourde’s in Pasco, Wash. She would go on to graduate from Pasco High School in 1984 before earning an Associate’s degree in Journalism at Columbia Basin College from 1988-89. It was there that she met her ex-husband, Michael Kane, and the two went on to have two children, Brett and Megan.
In 1997, Michelle and her family moved to Hermiston, Ore., where she would spend the next 26 years raising her kids and committing her time to making the community she lived in a better place for everyone.
Above anything else, Michelle was dedicated to her family. She made homemade story books for her kids, taught them to read and write, and even took them on field trips before they were old enough for kindergarten. During her free time, she was always working on scrapbooks and home videos of her family, and published the annual family newsletter. She loved carrying on with old family traditions, as well as starting new ones, whether it was taking the kids to place flowers on the graves of relatives every year on Memorial Day, or buying the family doughnuts for breakfast every Christmas. Even in her adult years, she made sure to take the time and call her mother every Sunday morning to catch up.
Michelle was always busy, and that was how she liked it. While she stayed at home with her kids, she worked as a news clerk for the Hermiston Herald for several years in the late ‘90s and early 2000s before taking on her first position at the Hermiston School District – a volunteer coordinator for the Start Making a Reader Today program at West Park and Highland Hills Elementary. She also served as the leader for Megan’s Girl Scout troop for over a decade and held numerous other positions in the Girl Scout community.
Michelle was instrumental in bringing the Me and My Prince Ball to Hermiston. She and her fellow volunteers held the first of the father-daughter dances in 2004, and made it an annual tradition all the way through 2023. Not only did Michelle love being with her own family – she loved bringing others together, as well.
Michelle was also heavily involved in Hermiston High’s Project Graduation volunteer team, even remaining onboard for a little while after Megan graduated in 2014. Education was important to her. She would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Integrative Study from Eastern Oregon University in March of 2020, as well as minors in communication studies, anthropology, and sociology.
In 2020, Michelle began her position as Media Assistant at Desert View Elementary. She also worked for the Umatilla School District’s after school and summer school programs.
When Michelle could spare a moment, she loved gardening, arts and crafts, puzzles, reading, hiking, exploring the various ghost towns and haunted houses of Oregon, and visiting her children after they moved to Spokane, Wash. She had a knack for detail and loved planning things – whether it was a Girl Scout outing, a family trip, or even her own wedding in 1991.
Michelle was hard-working and dedicated, patient and gentle, and endlessly kind and full of love. She remained strong and fearless, even in poor health. She was a source of comfort and inspiration to her family and to all those who knew her.
She is survived by her son, Brett, Spokane; daughter, Megan, Richland; mother, Lynn, and father, Larry, Ocean Springs, Miss.; younger sister Lisa Burdett-Cameron and her children Lyndsey Burdett and Cassidy and Connor Cameron, Winter Garden, Fla.; and younger brother Jason Burdett, his wife Stephanie, and their children Hayden and Talon, of Ocean Springs.
