Jesse Burt Collier, Jr. (“Burt”) was born in San Diego, California where his career Navy father Jesse Burt Sr. was stationed. Burt is survived by his trophy wife of nearly forty years Beth, his sister Jackie Johnson and nephew Eric White and niece Kimberly White and a great nephew. He is also survived by his brother-in-law Joe Diachenko and his wife Alyona and niece Anastasiya, and nephew Max.
Burt graduated from Great Mills High School and attended the University of Maryland on a baseball scholarship. After college, he had a tryout as a pitcher with a professional major league baseball team. Burt had a long career as an employment counselor with the State of Maryland. His first and last part-time jobs consisted of delivering the local newspaper. He also served in the Maryland Army National Guard. He had a love of streetrods, fishing, crabbing, softball, and the outdoors. His last streetrod (a Fiat) was built by his good friend Jon Edwards. He was a lifelong fan of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.
He was a founding member of the St. Mary’s Rod and Classic Car Club. He is descended from the Barrett family who were descended from Cora Franklin Barker (1865-1952) and Samuel Jesse Rollings (1855-1918) whose family lived for generations on a peanut farm southeast of Richmond, Virginia. In the last year of his life, Burt enjoyed the company of a tuxedo cat named Magpie. Memorial donations may be made to the Friends of the Linda L. Kelley Animal Shelter www.follkas.org/donate.
A memorial will be held during the St. Mary’s Rod and Classic Car Club 36th Annual Spring Fling Car Show Sunday April 30 in Leonardtown
www.stmarysrodandclassic.com
Internment is private.
