2008
Berney Truan Wilburn, 89, who promoted travel and tourism with the Commerce Department and the Department of
Transportation, died Nov. 19 at the home of a friend, Grace Kayatta, in Fairfax County. He had bone cancer.
Mr. Wilburn was born in Knoxville, Tenn., and came to Washington as a teenager. He graduated from Central High School in
1937.
After graduating from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, he served in the Merchant Marine during World War II, delivering arms
and ammunition to every theater of battle.
After the war, Mr. Wilburn returned to Washington to attend Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, from which he
graduated in 1948.
He began his career in 1948 with a Merchant Marine lobbying group. In the early 1960s, he joined the U.S. Travel Service, the
newly formed Commerce Department agency. Mr. Wilburn traveled all over the world to promote U.S. tourism. He later held a
similar position with the Department of Transportation until his retirement in the 1980s.
Mr. Wilburn settled in the Lincolnia Park community of Fairfax County in 1956 and was president of the neighborhood civic
association. He was a member of the Elks Club and was active in alumni affairs of the Merchant Marine Academy.
His wife of 56 years, Virginia Ashby Wilburn, died in 2003.
A son, Berney T. Wilburn Jr., died in 1953.
Survivors include Kayatta, his companion of several years; three children, John Ashby Wilburn of Houston, Patricia Wilburn
Pretsch of Alexandria and M'Lou Wise of Flower Mound, Tex.; a brother, Gene Wilburn of Frederick; and four grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel