Rosanne S. Berkenstock was born on March 1, 1952 in Washington, DC. She grew up on Green Hill Farm in Haymarket, Virginia where her family raised Angus cattle and horses. She graduated from George Mason University with a B.A. in History and went on to have a career in the journalism and photography field in which she won more than 70 professional awards. After freelancing for a couple of Prince William County community newspapers, she served as the Countryside and Equestrian Sports Editor for The Fauquier Democrat and later worked for the Culpeper News.

Berkenstock participated in Prince William County’s 4-H program for many years and won the 1970 Virginia 4-H Horse Judging Contest. She also had a career in emergency services working as a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Culpepper County and later hired as the first female firefighter for the Frederick County Fire and Rescue Department. She later became a registered nurse and owned a yarn shop in Culpeper, Virginia before her death on May 13, 2014.

In 1975, the Burke Jaycees undertook a study of the history of Burke, Virginia to promote community awareness in conjunction with the National Bicentennial. Through the project, the Jaycees hoped to publish a book on the community’s history, contribute local history research to the Kings Park Library, and to create an educational slideshow for local civic groups and schools.

With the development of Burke Centre simultaneously occurring at the start of this project, the Burke Centre Conservancy eventually took it over. They selected Rosanne Berkenstock, a trained historian, to trace the history of Burke Centre. Berkenstock interviewed a number of local residents and located research material and historical sources. A final report was never completed, but the Burke Centre Conservancy published some of Berkenstock’s research efforts in a 1977 pamphlet entitled “An Introduction to the History of the Burke Centre Area”.