Lainy Brooke Burnett

Our beautiful Lainy Brooke Burnett was taken from us with terrible suddenness on September 7, 2022 at the age of 18.

Lainy was the beloved daughter of J.W. Burnett of Emory, Texas and Kristi Hicks of Miller Grove, Texas.  She was born on October 2, 2003 in Sulphur Springs and spent her 18 years of life at their home in Miller Grove, Texas.

Lainy was a bright spirit who touched every life she met, human and animal alike. Her smile was the sun breaking through clouds, her laugh was infectious and her sweet and generous heart was felt by everyone who experienced the Lainy-train.  At school, she was an excellent student who, when she graduated high school with honors, also achieved a bachelor’s degree with Paris Community College.  She was a gifted athlete who played basketball, volleyball, track and cross-country.  During those years, as well, she was active in theater, the University Interscholastic League and the National Honor Society. Growing up in a small community, she was known by all; her passing has left a broken place here in her world. 

Lainy had recently begun her college education at Texas A&M University and had just moved into her apartment in College Station, Texas.  She was so proud to have started her job at Another Broken Egg Café and we watched our precious Lainy growing into an amazing young woman with all of life’s opportunities before her.  Lainy was a cherished friend to so many and was surrounded all through her life by music and animals and friends and family.

We will never be able to make sense of the crushing loss of our darling girl, but will forever be changed by loving and losing her. We go forward now into a world irreversibly altered by her absence knowing that our unbearable pain is the measure of our love. One day the gratitude of having been given the incalculably precious gift of sharing her life will outweigh the agony of having to let her go, and we can begin to bring her light to others through the cracks in our broken hearts.

Lainy Brooke Burnett is survived by her mother, Kristi Hicks and her father, J.W. Burnett and step-mother Karla.  She shared an incredible bond with her brother, Landon James Burnett, and loved her stepbrother, Maddox Brown.  On her father’s side, she is survived by great grandmother, Louise Stewart, grandparents Billy and Kathryn Burnett, Deborah Jackson and Judy Stewart and her aunts and uncles, Jaye Wilson, Carey Lobin, Carrie Hurley, Cole Burnett, Greg Mays and Cord Burnett.  On her mother’s side, she is survived by grandparents Garry and Sandra Hicks and Harry and Bette Herbst and her aunts and uncles, Stephanie Hurley, Justin Nicholson, Josh Nicholson and Jeff Nicholson.  She leaves behind a myriad of cousins and friends who will never forget our special Ray of Sunshine.

She was preceded in death by Godzilla, the Bearded Dragon she dearly loved.