A public memorial service was at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at Shades Mountain Baptist Church for William Bronner “Cornbread” Burgess, 2.Bronner, the son of Rick and Sherri Burgess, died Saturday after falling into an indoors pool at the Burgess home in Indian Springs Village in Shelby County.
Rick Burgess, is co-host of The Rick and Bubba Show. Rick spoke at the funeral which was attended by an estimated 4,000 mourners. A shuttle service was set up at Berry Middle School to help handle the large number of mourners and vehicles.
Shelby County deputies and North Shelby fire and emergency personnel responded to a call around 7:30 p.m. Efforts to save the child failed. He was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.
“We ask that you bathe Rick, Sherri, and the entire Burgess family in prayer as they deal with the loss of their youngest son, Bronner Burgess,” was a message on The Rick and Bubba website.
“He was real energetic, just a beautiful child,” said Shades Mountain pastor Rev. Danny Wood. “He was kind of a mama’s boy in the sense that he was really attached to Sherri. He was a very healthy child. He was a typical boy.”
Wood said he spent time with the Burgess family Sunday.
“The death of a child, it’s very difficult but they have a great strength because of their faith in Jesus Christ,” Wood said.
Burgess, who often speaks of his faith on the radio show, was a guest speaker over the weekend at a Christian retreat in Gatlinburg, Tenn., for high school students. A plane was made available and he flew home as soon as he received the call about Bronner’s death.
The church and WZZK, the station that broadcasts The Rick and Bubba Show, have been bombarded by calls, emails, letters and texts supporting the Burgess family.
“You folks have helped to pick us up and you’re helping us through this process,” says Bill “Bubba” Bussey. The Burgess family is asking persons to donate to the Bronner Burgess Memorial Fund.
The money will be used to create the Bronner Burgess Foundation, which will support Christian outreach activities.
Go to The Rick and Bubba website, www.rickandbubba.com to donate.
For those wishing to sign a condolence book for the Burgess family, Miller Funeral Home and Crematory, 110 Hamric Drive East in Oxford will have a book in the lobby until Friday. The book will be given to the Burgess family next week.
Rick and Sherri also have a daughter, Brandi, and three sons, Blake, Brooks and Brody. Bronner’s paternal grandparents are Bill and Gynell Burgess of Jacksonville.
