Leona Lee Burnham, 68, of Springfield, died Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis, of complications following a pulmonary embolism. Ms. Burnham was born April 1, 1958, at Scott Air Force Base, near Belleville, the daughter of Charles Edward and Lola Virgene Davis Burnham.

Ms. Burnham is survived by: her son, Daniel Burnham of Springfield; her sister, Lola Burnham of Charleston, and her children, Thomas McElwee of Pontiac, Joseph and Christine McElwee of South Elgin, Matthew and Chrissy McElwee of South Elgin, and Sarah McElwee of Champaign; her brother and sister-in-law, Stanley and Penny Burnham of Jacksonville, and their daughter, Abigail Burnham of Carterville; and her brother, David Burnham of Nebraska, and his children, Jacob, Clara, Kaylyn and Andrew Burnham; and two cousins: Patrick O'Brien and Rick Burnham, both of Maryland. Rounding out her family are two great-nephews and six great-nieces: Everett McElwee, Matilda Bhargav, Charlotte McElwee, Audrey McElwee, Eleanor Bhargav, Joseph Burnham, Haven McElwee, and Adelaide McElwee. She was preceded in death by her parents; a nephew, Patrick Corban Burnham; her grandparents, Helen Grace Davis Fischer and Albert Arthur and Emma Rider Burnham; her aunt and uncle, Dolores and Edward O'Brien, and her uncle, Albert Burnham.

She was a 1976 graduate of Virginia High School. A lifelong nurturer — as a 3-year-old she climbed into her baby sister's crib to read to her — she chose nursing as her profession, and in 1979, she graduated from Blessing Hospital School of Nursing in Quincy with a Diploma of Nursing. She passed the State Board exam on her first try, saving Kroger from hiring her as a cashier. She graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1985. She earned her Master of Science in Nursing from Loyola University of Chicago in 1991 and completed a post-master's certificate to become a family medicine nurse practitioner in 2015. Along the way, she also earned certificates in Maternal-Child Health and as a Clinical Nurse Specialist.

Is it any wonder her siblings gave her the nickname "Miss Scientific"?

For much of her career, she specialized in the care of children, starting as a registered nurse in the Pediatric Unit at Blessing Hospital in Quincy. While earning her bachelor's degree, she worked in the Student Health Service at Northern, but then it was back to pediatrics while earning her master's degree, working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Loyola University Medical Center. From there she moved to the University of Chicago's PICU where she was also involved in discharge planning for children whose parents needed to be educated about how to care for them when they returned home.

She then moved to Springfield and worked in Pediatrics and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at St. John's Hospital. She also was a clinical nurse specialist at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, working with Dr. David Rogers, Dr. Ruth Mayforth, and Dr. Andreas Meier. She also worked as a clinical nurse specialist in Pediatric Surgery at HSHS Medical Group until she was, as she said, "laid off, as is the St. John's way." Refusing to be daunted by the layoff, she returned to school to become a clinical nurse practitioner and then worked at Memorial Urgent Care until her retirement in December 2023.

She was a past secretary of the American Pediatric Surgical Nursing Association.

A proud Air Force "brat," Ms. Burnham moved frequently as a child, living in Texas, Japan, Indiana, Arizona, California and New Mexico before returning to Illinois when her father retired. All that moving instilled a lifelong interest in traveling. As an adult, she lived in Quincy, DeKalb, Oak Park and Springfield. Wherever she lived, she attended liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America churches. She taught Sunday school at Christ Lutheran Church in Quincy and was a church council member at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Oak Park. She enjoyed reading, knitting, needlework, and researching family genealogy. She loved the Impressionists, especially Monet, and she was a lifelong fan of all things Star Trek, beginning in the days when fans were dismissed as "Trekkies," a label she adopted wholeheartedly, later eschewing the term "Trekkers" in favor of the original. Plans to travel after her retirement were delayed by illness, though she did fit in one trip to Washington, D.C., to see the Impressionists at the National Gallery of Art. She underwent a successful double lung transplant at Barnes on Nov. 8, 2025, and was able to breathe without supplemental oxygen for the first time in two and a half years. But a pulmonary embolism on Jan. 7, 2026, sidelined her recovery, and she grew increasingly weaker and was never able to regain her strength. On June 16, she gave a little sigh and breathed her last, but it was a breath without having to be tied to an oxygen tank.

The family will host services on Friday, July 10, 2026, at Grace Lutheran Church in Virginia. The visitation will be held from 10 a.m. until time of services. The Central Illinois Nurse Honor Guard will conduct a remembrance ceremony at 11 a.m., with the funeral immediately following. Burial will be in Walnut Ridge Cemetery, Virginia. The Buchanan & Cody Funeral Home in Jacksonville is providing cremation and is assisting the family with arrangements. Memorials may be made to the Central Illinois Nurse Honor Guard, the scholarship fund at Blessing Reiman College of Nursing in Quincy, or to food pantries wherever you live. Ms. Burnham also asked for people to please consider becoming organ or tissue donors. Condolences may be left at buchanancody.com.