Living
Comedy icon Carol Burnett has roots in Belton
Sunday, 08 July 2012 by Berneta Peeples
Comedy legend Carol Burnett attended seventh grade at what was then known as Tyler Ward School in Belton in the 1930s.An idle conversation last week included the ever famous Carol Burnett and one of the group was flabbergasted to hear that Carol Burnet lived in Belton in the early 1930s and was a seventh grade student at Tyler Ward School, later called Tyler Elementary School.
The late Betty Ann Potts (Mrs. Vernon) Barge related the story at a committee meeting. She stressed that few knew about it then. Carol, her little sister and their grandmother lived for several months in the rock house near the Nolan Creek bridge on S. Main St. In those early depression days the trio was one of hundreds of families seeking security. Carol and her family were in Belton for a few months and Carol was a seventh grader.
Carol's father was Jody Burnet, son of one of the daughters of Charles Wesley Danley who had married Dr. Burnet, the local "horse doctor." The title "veterinarian" was not in the Bell County vocabulary then.
Charles Wesley Danley was a son of John Danley, of 1850 Bell County political fame. John Danley was the blacksmith who gave the top bid for town lots when the county seat was laid out.
The Danley home, built by Charles Wesley at 100 N. Pearl St. is the house where Jody Burnet's mother grew up and remained in the Danley family until the 1990s.
P.S. The late W.A. "Happy" Durham once related how Jody Burnet got a bicycle for Christmas. Christmas afternoon Jody demonstrated his skill with the new bike. He smashed it when he rode it down the north steps of the Bell County Courthouse.
