RIP Harriet Burns, first woman Imagineer

Harriet Burns, the first woman Imagineer, died this week at 79. She was part of the teams that built Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean. and Great Moments with Mr Lincoln.

She also occasionally filled in for Walt Disney on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color."
In 2000, the Walt Disney Co. named Burns as a Disney Legend, an honor that acknowledges people "whose imagination, talents and dreams have created the Disney magic."
Walt Disney Imagineering issued a statement this week, calling her "the best-dressed employee in the department."
It also released a quote from Burns in which she described her work for Disney in the 1950s: "I wore color-coordinated dresses, high heels and gloves to work. Girls didn't wear slacks back then, although I carried a pair in a little sack, just in case I had to climb into high places."

Link (Thanks, Mat!)

(Image: Harriet, Blaine, and some traveling companions, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike photo from Ste3ve's Flickr stream)

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by banjofreak , July 30, 2008 10:40 AM

She also had lots to do with the 1964 World's Fair. There is a tiny bit more on her at the Disney Legend's site.

#2 posted by GB12 , July 30, 2008 11:05 AM

Here's a link to a longer--and more personal--obit for the great Harriet Burns...

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/todd_james_pierce/archive/2008/07/28/remembering-harriet-burns-1928-2008.aspx

#3 posted by Chris Spurgeon , July 30, 2008 11:53 AM

I'm very sorry to hear this. I work at Disney now, and I had the great pleasure of hearing Harriet speak at a Disney event last year. She was charming and full of wonderful and amazing stories of building mountains out of candy and trying to figure out how to make art out of some new material called fiberglass.