SACRAMENTO— Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) honored Solano County resident Marime Burton as the 2019 Fourth Assembly District Woman of the Year at the State Capitol Monday. Each year, the Assembly honors women throughout California who have made significant contributions to their communities.
“Marime has influenced her community in so many different ways, from public service to the preforming arts, and everything in between, Marime has done it all,” said Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry. “Marime’s passion and commitment to her community is unmatched and I am honored to name her as my 2019 Woman of the Year.”
Burton has spent her life active in community and public service. Her civic engagement began as a young adult when she created theater workshops and music camps for children. For 25 years, she and her husband Tom Burton wrote, directed and produced yearly performances for the Dixon Children’s Theater, a free organization for all Dixon children.
To combat against rapid and unchecked growth in the late 1970s, Burton created We Harbor Open Acres (WHOA) to allow the Dixon community better control of residential growth that was eating up valuable agricultural land and open spaces. Because of her work, historic land use policies emerged – one was Measure B which passed in 1986 and authorized the City Council to limit residential growth to 3 percent per year. Then in the mid 199’s, the Vacaville-Dixon Greenbelt was established to place a deed restriction on 1004 acres of agricultural land and prohibiting it from being used for urban purposes in perpetuity.
Because of her record of accomplishments, Burton was elected to the Dixon City Council in 1978 and became Mayor in 1980, the third of four woman to hold this position.
In the early 2000s Burton founded the Dixon Education Foundation (DEF), whose sole purpose was to raise funds for programs for students, teachers and field trips.
In addition, Burton has served as a volunteer at the Dixon Montessori Charter School, St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Dixon Family Services and Jepson Prairie. She is a certified Master Gardner, was named Dixon’s Citizen of the Year in 1999 and Dixon’s Outstanding Senior Citizen of the Year in 2011.
Burton is a lifelong resident of Dixon and is married to her high school sweetheart, Tom. They have four children and five grandchildren. She was joined at the Capitol by Tom and her daughters Caitlin O’Halloran and Meghan Baichtal.
Aguiar-Curry represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all of Lake and Napa Counties, parts of Colusa, Solano and Sonoma Counties, and all of Yolo County except West Sacramento.
