Biography

Kathleen “Kay” Burford was born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1920, the only child of Mark and Kathryn Kane. She graduated from the Academy of the Visitation in Dubuque in 1937. She later received a BFA and MFA from the University of Iowa, where she studied art and taught drawing. Burford became one of the first three women to attend the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 1947. That year, her short story, “Bedtime Story,” was published in Junior Bazaar.

While studying at the University, she met and married artist and fellow student, Byron Burford. The two raised three children in Iowa City while Byron Burford pursued painting as a professor of art at the University of Iowa. The two worked at Yaddo, an artist’s retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York in the early 1970s. They were married for 65 years.

Burford continued to write and draw throughout her life. Her published work included the illustrations for June Jordan’s children’s book, Kimako’s Story, and a series of cat themed postcards entitled Be Positive About Your Doubts. She died in Iowa City in 2009.

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