Queen Elizabeth II September 11 Memorial Garden
Montclair State University 9/11 Memorial
East Newark 9/11 Memorial
Fair Haven 9/11 Memorial
Freehold Township 9/11 Living Memorial Tree Grove
Conseleya 9/11 Memorial
Crescent Beach Park - Flagpole/Memorial for 9/11 Victims
Garrison Elementary School American Patriot Garden
Dewitt 9/11 Memorial
No words could ever express the love and the light that Johnny Burnside brought to his family, to his friends and to New York City. John loved this city and dedicated his life and his work to making it a safer place. He was born in New York Hospital on December 10, 1964, fifteen minutes before his twin brother, Robert. Johnny's parents, William and Elizabeth, had emigrated from Ireland in 1963. Johnny was raised with his twin brother and younger sister, Annie, in the close knit Manhattan neighborhood of Inwwood. Johnny and Bob attended good Shepherd Elementary School and were in the choir and also altar servers. John and his siblings spent their childhood playing with friends in the parks of Inwood. He attended St. Raymond's High School for Boys in the Bronx and graduated in 1982. He worked as a security guard at Rockefeller Center while attending New York Institute of Technology. Johnny was called for the Police Department in 1990. While working in Central Park he met his future wife, Sandra. He worked for three years in Central Park Precinct and entered the New York City Fire Department in 1994. He spent his career at Ladder 20, SoHo. Johnny died with his FDNY brothers on September 11, 2001. John Patrick Burnside is survived by his wife, Sandra, his parents William and Elizabeth. He will be forever missed by his brother Robert, sister-in-law Veronica, nephews, William and John Patrick, sister Annie Barry, brother-in-law, Michael Barry, nephew, Michael and niece, Jenna Marie.
New York Times Portraits of Grief
It is 1991. The young woman is in-line skating in Central Park on a lovely July day. The police officer is standing on duty outside the park's Summerstage, where Marshall Crenshaw is playing. She stops to chat. He asks what she is doing that night. She mentions a bar.
That is how love began between Sandra Endres and John P. Burnside 10 years ago. "He walked in the door, and I said that was it," Mrs. Burnside said. "We were like two old souls. It was absolutely meant to be."
He was a police officer for only three years, while he waited for assignment to his other true love, the Fire Department. There, Firefighter Burnside was known as mistake-free. "When you checked in the morning and you knew John was working, it was going to be a good day," said George Kozlowski, a fellow firefighter at Ladder Company 20 on Lafayette Street.
The Burnsides lived a honeymoon life in Manhattan, vacationing often in the Caribbean and on the slopes. Recently, they started having thoughts of a more settled life. "But just when you think you're going to get serious, buy a home and have kids, it gets taken away," Mrs. Burnside said. " I'm never going to get that back, and it stinks." Her husband left Ladder Company 20 even before the alarm sounded, and died in the collapse of 1 World Trade Center.
Firefighter Burnside was raised in the tightknit Irish-American world of Inwood. He had an irrational love for the Minnesota Vikings, wrote poetry and played the guitar, often in the firehouse. He was so good that another firefighter once thought his rendition of a Led Zeppelin tune was coming out of a radio and went inside to turn it up.
He would have turned 37 last Monday.
How blessed am I and my
How blessed am I and my family to have known Johnny. We think of him often and our prayers are with the Burnside family on this day and always.
Posted by Ronni Sifer
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