Former Liverpool Echo journalist Bob Burns has died in the USA after a short illness at the age of 67.
Bob, who was retired after a lifetime in journalism also including spells on the Newark Advertiser and Western Mail in Cardiff, lived in Delray Beach, Florida.
He had been successfully treated for two brain tumours over the past 25 years but a third was diagnosed late last year.
Despite further recent treatment and a promising medical outlook, he was at home with his wife Dianne on Friday 9 December when he complained of feeling tired. He went to bed but couldn’t be roused the next morning.
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He was rushed to hospital where a severe blood clot on the brain was diagnosed. He was put on life support but never recovered consciousness and passed away peacefully the following Monday. His wife and two sons were at his bedside.
Bob Burns was born and raised in Liverpool and proudly claimed to be a native of the Sparrow Hall Estate in Fazakerley.
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He started his journalism career at the Bootle Times newspaper under legendary editor May Logan.
After a stint at the Mercury Press News Agency in Liverpool, he graduated to the Echo in the mid-eighties, where he stayed for 11 years.
Bob was a general news reporter, then crime reporter before becoming chief reporter and later moving onto the newsdesk as assistant news editor. He was involved in some of Merseyside’s biggest-ever news stories including the Heysel disaster, the Hillsborough tragedy and the James Bulger murder.
He had married Dianne, a native of New Orleans, whom he met while on holiday in America in 1981.
In the late 90s, Bob moved to the USA where he worked in journalism for the Miami-based Globe magazine. But he always kept in close contact with his many friends and former colleagues back in Liverpool and returned home almost every year to visit his beloved home city.
Bob, a lifelong Liverpool FC supporter received a moving letter of support from Reds boss Jurgen Klopp shortly before he died.
Alf Bennett, who worked alongside Bob in the Liverpool Echo newsroom for many years, said: “Bob loved football, he loved Liverpool and he loved his family.
“He loved life – and just about everybody he spent any time with loved Bob.”
Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade, a close friend, added: “Bob was a Liverpool Echo legend. It’s as plain and simple as that.”
Bob is survived by wife Dianne and sons Michael and Paul.
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