Virginia Struble Burlingame was born August 16, 1900 to Dr. and Mrs. Linton W. Struble of West Liberty, Iowa. She grew up in Davenport Iowa and attended high school there. She went on to graduate from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, 1928 and Columbia University's library school in New York City, 1933. She taught for two years and was on the library staff of the University of Iowa at Iowa City (1926-1927) and the Kansas Teachers College in Pittsburg (1927-1930). On September 12, 1936, she married Montana historian Merrill Burlingame in Davenport. The couple made their home in Bozeman, Montana. She was a member of the Grand Avenue Christian Church, the Audubon Society and numerous environmental associations. Burlingame was the author of three children's books, Cactus, The Story of a Porcupine (Bethany Press: 1958); The Little Ducks Who Swam Away From Home (A.S. Barnes, 1961); Larry Two-Feathers of the Nine bar Ranch (Bethany Press, 1967). She also contributed more than fifty short stories and articles for children and adults dealing with a wide variety of historical and social topics. She had been active in her church on a local, state, and national level, attending three world conferences for the church. She died on November 19, 1993.
From the guide to the Virginia S. Burlingame Papers, 1864-1989, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
