Influential SM Businesswoman Dies After Productive Career

Mirror Staff

   With her husband, Elizabeth Teeter Burns created the Bob Burns Restaurants in 1967. Following his death in 1971, she took a quick business course at Harvard and assumed full management of the restaurants, opening in Newport Beach and North Hollywood as well as Santa Monica and featuring Scottish decor and a continental menu. 
   Bob Burns Restaurant on the corner of Second Street and Wilshire
Boulevard became a Santa Monica landmark, with regular customers coming from both the beach communities and West L.A. as well as Santa Monica. 
   In 1992, Elizabeth Burns became the first woman President of the California Restaurant Association and she became a vigorous spokesperson for the industry, opposing federal legislation cutting tax deductions for business meals and favoring uniform laws governing smoking in restaurants and bars. 
   In addition to running her business and serving her industry, Burns served on the boards of UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center, the Salvation Army and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and was given the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award in 1983 for her efforts on behalf of the Duarte cancer research facility, the 1989 YMCA Woman of the Year Award and a lifetime achievement award from the Community Redevelopment Agency’s Westside branch. 
   At one time, she was a Santa Monica Planning Commissioner. 
   She died at 84 in Santa Monica. She is survived by her children, Beth, Bonnie and Bobby and four grandchildren. Memorial services will be private. The family has asked that donations be sent in her name to the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center Foundation or to the Los Angeles Chapter of Operation Smile.