My thoughts are with all of June’s family.  June was a special person.  We found each other through Ancestry.com and found out we were related.  She provided me with countless information about our families and their histories.  I was so thankful that she did this for me.  May June rest in peace.  Love Cathy Bacchus (Cole family)

My sincere condolences to the family.  June was so generous in sharing family history with us regarding the Cole family.  May she rest in peace.  

Cathy Bacchus and family

My deepest sympathy to Debbie and all of the family.
Margret Morrison


It all started with a real estate ad. I met June when I purchased land from her in the Interlake. Instead of handing over keys, she gave me her bucksaw and a No Trespassing sign. We walked the land, and she showed me where the orchids and pink birch were, where Lee had cleared paths through the woods, and where the “Dylan Trees” stood, so that I would never cut one down by accident. Over the years, she would come for a visit with her galoshes and teach me what she knew. She had roamed every inch of that area and knew the shorelines and gravel pits like the back of her hand. More stories came out about her life in Gimli, her sailing days, the friends, the time she spent helping to get funding for the Gimli seawall, time at the Gimli Art Club doing pottery. As the stories came out, I heard about her family, her early years in Winnipeg, her job with the City of Winnipeg, and much more. We talked about art, politics, genealogy, Indigenous wisdom, the environment, anything under the sun! Once she stopped driving, we would go on adventures in the city, going for drives or walks, sitting in little cafes, check out flooding in the spring, parks in the summer, geese in the fall, bird feeding stations in the winter. And always the amazing conversations. I will treasure forever a fall trip we took to Prairie Originals, where June purchased native wildflowers that I was to plant on the land. As we walked the rows of plants growing in the field, she quietly filled her pockets with the dry seed heads of anything that appealed to her. We giggled at her naughtiness. A few months ago, she gave me a bag with those seeds heads, all in envelopes and carefully labelled. I have strict instructions to spread them around the Interlake when I go on my drives. You bet, June. There will be thousands of wildflowers and grasses springing up from the seeds you collected. May you rest in peace, looking at the lake change colours from your perch under the trees at the end of McElheran Road. 

Dear family,
June was like a warm summer day much like her name, always welcoming everyone with a warm smile and hug.  In her Fort Garry days working in the office she showed extreme kindness, patience and friendship to my father, as she did with all who she encountered there.  In her Gimli retirement days she embraced her life as part of the community and purchased land for a reserve for others to wander through and contemplate the outdoors beauty.

My condolences on your loss
Ron Hajes

OBITUARY

June Eileen Gillies

28 August, 1933 – 29 April, 2023

Thomson In The Park Funeral Home and Cemetery

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