Professor Emerita of English at Rhodes College, and beloved teacher of English and American literature at Hutchison School. Survived by her husband of 60 years, Auben Gray Burkhart, Jr., Tara was born on the historic Ross Farm in Loudoun County, Virginia, to the late Mary and Turner Jackson Ross. She graduated from Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia with highest honors and received a Master Degree in English literature from the University of Tennessee. She was named to Who's Who Among American College Students. Tara exerted a profound, lifelong influence on her students at Hutchison School where she taught 11th and 12th grade English for ten years. An inspired teacher, she imparted to her students a love and understanding of literature. Always piquing their curiosity, Tara challenged her students to think critically and recognize their own intellectual potential. She taught English literature at Rhodes College for some 15 years and, with the late Dean Yerger Clifton helped establish the Rhodes program of British Studies at Oxford, England, where she spent many summers with her students. She was associate Dean of the British Studies Program. Tara was for many years a judge for the Press Scimitar/ Commercial Appeal MidSouth Spelling Bee. She was a long time docent at the Dixon Galleries, and an award winning volunteer at each of the Memphis Wonders Series. She was a member and supporter of Decorative Arts Trust, the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Memphis, the McCoy Theater (Rhodes College), the Memphis Glass Club and many other organizations dedicated to encouraging the arts in Memphis. Her own collections of watercolors by Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and Walter Anderson were exhibited at Memphis Brooks Museum on a number of occasions. The Burkharts were world travelers, pursuing their interest in art and history in Egypt, England, Greece, Scandinavia, Europe and Central America.