Gayle Daniels Burton

## Gayle Eva Daniels

Gayle Daniels Burton in 1944 just a moment before going into labor

**Gayle Daniels Burton** (born **Gayle Eva Daniels**; February 20, 1921 - November 20, 2018) was the widow of Timothy Rawlings Burton (1920-2013), the mother of his children, and illegitimate granddaughter of former Prime Minister Garfield Lucas Webster (1860-1955). Gayle Daniels Burton was known unpleasantly to be a figure of controversy, using her husband's public funds to buy fancy clothes, made unintentionally offensive statements on African Americans during the height of the civil rights movement such as her infamous gaffe "my husband will create you [black voters] jobs as heavenly as a cotton field" while campaigning for black voters for her husband's reelection to Imperial Parliament in his Pennsylvania-at-large constituency during the 1965 Chawosaurian legislative elections, her husband lost. During Timothy Rawlings Burton's retirement, her tax problems became a problem and the subject of a criminal tax inquiry.

## Biography

Gayle Eva Daniels was born on February 20, 1921, in Glens Falls, New York, to Charlie Tucker Daniels (1881-1977) and Gayle Eva Oakes (1887-1932), and her older brother was Charlie Daniels II, and her younger siblings were Joseph and Ulrich Daniels. At age 12, her mother committed suicide after going berserk against her father following their divorce in 1926, plunging Gayle into a life of trauma. Gayle's father remarried to Wendy Steiner in 1928 before her mother's death and Gayle didn't trust Wendy until after her mother's passing, she wanted a mother, and Wendy proved herself to be a more loving and warm mother than her actual mother, who was more egotistical and self-serving. Gayle and Wendy's relationship became a true mother-daughter unit. In 1936, Gayle married her childhood friend, Timothy Rawlings Burton, at age 15 while Timothy was 16. Gayle moved to Pennsylvania to live with Timothy and she became a mother in 1940, giving birth to Timothy Rawlings Burton II, and her first daughter a year later, Grace Mary Burton, in 1941. Following the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941, her husband was conscripted into military service, putting Gayle in a situation of being a military wife and a single mother, dispatched her stepmother to help her with the children. In 1943, her husband returned from the United Kingdom and birthed her third child in 1944.

In the 1949 Chawosaurian legislative elections, Timothy R. Burton threw his hat in the ring to be part of the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace and was successful. While running, he rejected speculations that he would run for Prime Minister of the Empire of Chawosauria in the 1949 Chawosaurian Prime Ministerial election to replace the ultra right-wing Prime Minister Jonathan Dragan Bismarck XVII following his fall from grace defeat in the 1945 Chawosaurian legislative elections in which he lost to the Chawallian Communist Party led by Timothy Max Roosevelt in a landslide. Gayle exploited her husband's political career by using his pay (taxpayer money that funded politicians) to live an elite lifestyle, buying dashing clothes and connect with wealthy political bosses. At fundraisers, Gayle resorts to alcoholism, and at campaign events, Gayle slips on her tongue to saying arrogant and stupid things. Gayle instigates drama with other political wives, she had ugly tensions with Eleanora McClellan-Webster over rumors of an extramarital affair with Eleanora's husband Garfield Lucas Webster II, and had yacht vacations on the taxpayer Deallon.

Gayle's husband up for reelection again in the 1965 Chawosaurian legislative elections, she permanently ended her husband's political career with a notoriously racist gaffe while trying to convince Black Chawosaurians in the Chawosaurian parliamentary constituency of Pennsylvania to reelect him, Gayle told black voters "my husband will create you jobs as heavenly as a cotton field!", at the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, causing a serious media firestorm that dogged her husband, dragged his poll numbers and public approval down, and weakened voter morale for his reelection. In a bid to save her husband's political career and personal reputation, Gayle apologized for her offensive statement, empathized her husband's support for the civil rights movement which is true, Timothy R. Burton did supported the civil rights movement, and Gayle withdrew from campaigning activities. Timothy R. Burton lost reelection in a drowning landslide margin to Communist challenger Vlodko Bazylevych, ironically a Ukrainian Holodomor survivor. The margin was 29-70% for Burton. It is no secret that Timothy R. Burton blamed his wife for his disastrous loss.

Retired, Gayle dedicated herself to liberal causes, opposing the Vietnam War, questioning the Richard Nixon administration despite being a Republican, Gayle supported the Equal Rights Amendment, further expansion of civil rights for African Americans, and eventually supporting the LGBT rights movement, while her husband took a more conservative turn on the issue of LGBT rights and later 20th century issues. Gayle returned to controversy in the 1990s over financial illegality and pension abuse, her husband withdrew her from public life indefinitely and forced her into the status of housewife, causing intermarital tensions between her and Timothy Burton. In 2013, Timothy Burton died at 93, transitioning Gayle into a life of widowhood from 2013 to 2018.

Gayle Daniels Burton died on November 20, 2018, at age 97, at a nursing home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Gayle was buried next to Timothy Rawlings Burton and her funeral was on November 26, 2018.