June Lee Finkbeiner

June Lee Finkbeiner passed away peacefully on May 15th. Born in Martin, TN to a family of farmers, June grew up in a hard-working, solid, supportive, and God-fearing environment. Her father, lovingly called “Short” because he was tall, was one of 6 children and while running a successful farm, also volunteered to drive the school bus each day, which symbolized their commitment to community service. Her mom, Opal, was a hard-working provider of a stable home in which June pursued her studies, basketball and 4H.

June was curious about the rest of the world and attended TN Tech in Cookeville for her bachelor’s degree in English and UT Knoxville for her Master’s degree in Textiles & Retailing. This was made partially possible by living with her Aunt Esther, who was the only sister to her dad in that family of six. Esther was a college professor (PhD’s in Latin and English) in TN and that alone speaks volumes when you consider the opportunities available to women born in 1901 like Esther. June was able to attend college by living with her and they stayed close for life, with Esther moving to Southern Pines to be closer in her later years.

June then launched out into the world to enter the Jr Executive training program with Neiman Marcus in Dallas, TX. Additionally, she was chosen to participate in a Neiman Marcus program to work for a year at Harrod’s in London. She loved that experience, not just in buying for the accessory section of Harrod’s, but in experiencing British life. She caught the travel bug and throughout her life she traveled extensively. Returning to Dallas, she met Don at a party and they both knew there was something different in each other. Soon married, they moved to Detroit, MI for Don’s job and June worked a similar role with Hudson’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, living right downtown. After experiencing the lockdown of the race riots in the 60’s, they took a job opportunity to move to Western NY. They lived in Jamestown/Lakewood for several years, falling into a solid and fun-loving community mainly made up of folks from Scandinavian & Italian descent, and June loved that experience. She volunteered at the hospital gift shop to serve her fashion merchandising need, and to the day she passed, she loved visiting hospital gift shops due to their independent nature. They were blessed with a dog Brunhilde, cat Omar, and their only child Alice while in Lakewood. Having enough of the snow 9 months a year, they took the opportunity to move to Cary, NC for Don’s job change and quickly found communities focused on tennis, church, volunteering, socializing and neighbors. These communities flourished with people from all walks of life as Cary grew from 12K to 180K today.

While June was a full-time homemaker when her daughter was young, she started a few enterprises to occupy her time and mind. She was an antique dealer (frequently coming back from road trips with furniture strapped to the top of the car,) refinishing everything herself, had a decorative stenciling business (which started with our entire house), and once Alice was 16 and driving, launched a full time highly successful career as a residential real estate agent for Fonville Morisey. She was frequently a top agent and developed lasting friendships with many colleagues.

Independent is probably the most encompassing adjective of June. She had boundless energy and was incredibly resourceful and able to “do it yourself” for most every task. A good example is when she constructed a backyard swing herself as well as digging out and making a fishpond. She could figure out how to get pretty much anything done regardless of resources. She loved to entertain, celebrate the seasons & holidays by decorating the entire house, collecting numerous things (as you could see if you ever visited the house), gardening, painting, and reading. She was a huge animal lover, and every cat we had was a stray and cared for dotingly by June. She was also a docent at the NC Museum of Art for roughly 30 years and became an early board member of the Cary Visual Art organization to find, fund, and place public art. She was active at church in the choir and in bible study, and in several book and garden clubs.

Aside from her parents, June is predeceased by her sister, Jo Lee Nanney.

She is survived by her husband Don of 57 years, of Cary; her daughter, Alice O’Neill; and her 3 teenage grandchildren in Boston.

We will really miss June. But we know she is in a better place, with a renewed supply of energy to organize the next task and get things ready up there for the rest of us.

A visitation for June will be held Thursday, June 6, 2024, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM in the Spiritual Life Center at Glenaire Cary, 6000 Glenview Garden Place, Cary, NC 27511.

A memorial service will occur Saturday, June 8, 2024, at 11:00 AM at Christ Church, 120 E. Edenton St, Raleigh, NC 27601. A reception will follow the service in the church parish hall.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the SPCA of Wake County, 200 Petfinder Lane, Raleigh, NC 27603 (https://donate.spcawake.org/give/403088/#!/donation/checkout), Christ Episcopal Church, 120 E. Edenton St., Raleigh, NC 27601 (https://ccral.org/give/online-giving/), or the NC Museum of Art, 4630 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699 (https://ncartmuseum.org/?s=Donate).

Services are entrusted to Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 300 Saint Mary's St., Raleigh, NC 27605.