Secret to a Happy Marriage: “Treat your husband or your wife the
same way you did on your first date.” Most Meaningful Advice:
From her father: “To be honest and always remember that I was no
better than anyone else but I was no less. And not to worry
about things, to deal with them.” Biggest Influences: “All the
women that preceded me that were brave enough to go into non-
traditional jobs.” “Not a Quitter”: After sticking out a
thirteen-year sexual harassment suit Burns knows a thing or two
about perseverance: “When you get discouraged just take a deep
breath, wait a day or two, and just start over.” Barbara Burns
was one of the first female coal miners in the country and an
‘everywoman’ champion against sexual harassment in the
workplace. The oldest of eight, Burns grew up in West Virginia,
in a family where almost all the men were coal miners. By 1975,
she was a mother of two, with ambitions to pursue nursing and a
husband in poor health. Eager to earn more than she could in the
low-wage, female-dominated