LON LELAND (BUD) BURNS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Lon Leland (Bud) Burns, 72, a retired journalist who was a baseball and basketball player at the former Southeast Missouri State College in the 1940s, died Nov. 23, 1993, in Nashville.

He was the retired managing sports editor of the Nashville Tennessean.

He was born in Steele and had a promising collegiate athletic career that was interrupted by World War II. He twice was wounded in action, and was awarded two Purple Hearts and one Bronze Star, the latter for his participation in the 82nd Airborne Division's invasion of France.

After the war he returned to the college to play two years of basketball. He later was a member of a touring semi-pro team called the House of David.

He also played in the old Washington Senators minor league system at Orlando, Fla. and Charlotte, N.C., and in 1948 was a player-manager for the Fulton, Ky., team in the Class D Kitty League.

He joined the staff of the Tennessean in 1953. During his last few years of work he was the beat writer for the Nashville Sounds Class AAA baseball team.

Surviving are a wife, Era, and three sons, Buddy, Bobby and Bill Burns. Burial was in Nashville.