Lance W Burr

Memorial services for Lance W. Burr, 70, Lawrence, KS will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, May 20, 2013 at Liberty Hall (642 Massachusetts St.) in Lawrence, KS. Inurnment will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at the Gypsum Hill Cemetery in Salina, KS. He died on Monday, May 13, 2013 at his home in Lawrence after a ten year battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Lance was born on November 22, 1942 in Salina, KS, the son of Sheldon and June Dahlberg Burr. He grew up in Salina and graduated from Salina High School in 1961.

He was a graduate of the University of Kansas in 1965 and the University of Kansas School of Law in 1968. While at KU, he played tennis and was a Big Eight tennis champion in 1964 and President of the Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity in 1965.

Lance was a longtime Lawrence attorney, activist, conservationist, environmentalist and landlord. He practiced law for many years and specialized in Native American Law. He worked as an Assistant Attorney General in Kansas and ran for Attorney General on two occasions. At one time, he was the Attorney General for the Kickapoo Nation in Kansas and Nebraska. He also did legal work for the Prairie Band Potawatomie Nation, and the Sac and Fox tribes of Kansas. He was instrumental in obtaining rights for the Kansas Indian tribes to legalize reservation casinos with then Governor Joan Finney. He also owned a small business, Restorations Unlimited, in Lawrence.

He was a member of the Kansas and Douglas County Bar Associations. He was a co-founder and the first president of the Friends of the Kaw. He taught Native American Law at Haskell Indian Nations University. He argued cases in federal and state supreme courts for conservation issues, Indian federal and state rights, gaming laws, and the preservation of numerous historic and architecturally unique buildings in Douglas County. Lance had a lively sense of humor. He loved travel (foreign and domestic), music, animals, motorcycle riding, and KU basketball.

He is survived by a daughter, Desireé Burr, of Lawrence, KS; a son and daughter-in-law, Dustin and Misty Burr, of Lawrence, KS; his father, Sheldon Burr, of Salina, KS; a brother, Steve Burr, of Salina, KS and two step-grandchildren, Gus and Daisy Warren. He was preceded in death by his mother.

The family suggests memorials in his name to the American Indian College Fund and may be sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence.

The family will greet friends from 5-8 p.m. on Sunday, May 19, 2013 at the mortuary.

Online condolences may be sent to www.warrenmcelwain.com.