Burdock Everdeen

Katniss's father, the singer who made the birds stop to listen, and Haymitch's childhood friend.

Burdock Everdeen was Katniss's father, killed in the District 12 mines in the same accident as Gale's father when Katniss was 11 and Prim 7. He lives on in Katniss's memories throughout the series: the voice he sang with, his good looks, the skills he taught her.

Quick Facts

District: 12
Wife: Asterid
Daughters: Katniss, Prim
Died: District 12 mines
Friend: Haymitch Abernathy

Facts from the source article.

Background

According to Peeta's father, who had loved Katniss's mother himself, she picked Burdock for that lovely singing voice; Katniss remembers that when he sang, "all the birds stopped to listen", a memory Peeta later responds to successfully. His loss hurts Katniss terribly and nearly destroyed his wife, Asterid. The films show him only in flashbacks.

His first name, Burdock, comes from Sunrise on the Reaping, which makes him a boyhood friend of Haymitch Abernathy, a relative of the Covey and a distant cousin of Lenore Dove Baird, the love of Haymitch's life, whom he introduced to Haymitch. When Haymitch's family and Lenore Dove were murdered after the 50th Games and he cut off his friends to keep them safe, Burdock held on longer than almost anyone, and he eventually helped Haymitch locate the Covey's secret graveyard and Lenore Dove's grave.