June Marie Garner

June Marie Garner, aged 90, of Knoxville, Tennessee, passed away on November 1, 2011. She was born on February 10, 1921, the daughter of Mote Elizabeth Petty and Samuel Lee Nifong; with two sisters Edith Lee Finnigan and Lora Nell Mermin, both now deceased. She is survived by 5 nieces and nephews and their children, and her cousins Barbara Webster and Helen Child of Knoxville.

Her childhood was in the Maryville area, where her mother supported the family teaching school. June graduated from the University of Tennessee. In the early 40’s June was one of the first women from the state of Tennessee to get an airplane pilot’s license. She later flew cargo planes within the United States during World War II.

After moving to Washington DC, June was employed for many years by the US government. She had a number of different jobs, including working for the Department of State, in the Office of International Development. She also served for a time as a personal secretary to a congresswoman from Idaho.

June participated in many amateur theatre productions, and reported having worked with the famous actor Ernest Borgnine, (now 91), who she said became a personal friend. As a young woman June bore a physical resemblance to the actress Katherine Hepburn, and she seemed to have chosen Hepburn as a kind of a role model. For women of June’s generation Katherine Hepburn symbolized the idea that women could be strong, independent and action-oriented while still being romantic. June kept a framed photo of Katherine Hepburn in her bedroom.

In 1972, June retired from her government work and returned to Knoxville to act as a live-in caretaker for her mother (Mote E Dann), until her mother’s death in 1986. This enabled her mother Mote to fulfill a strong desire to remain in the home Mote loved and avoid a nursing home. After moving in with her mother, June bought a screen tent which she set up in the pines on her property so she could go there and have times of privacy and solitude. She said she might work on writing a book there.

For several years after moving to Knoxville, each forth of July June would buy hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks for a neighborhood display, and then allowed them to be set off on her back lot. Many neighbors enjoyed this, and would look forward to it.

June helped to maintain the large lot around their home. She loved nature and took many photos of the trees, bushes, and flowers near her home in different seasons. She enjoyed working outdoors, combating weeds even on her neighbor’s lots, and hiring youngsters to pick dandelions to prevent their proliferation.

June offered well paid local employment. A young man was hired to dig a drainage ditch (which June called “The Panama Canal” across a portion of her lot which she called “The Park,” and it is said that this project did a great deal towards financing his college education, and that he is not the only young person she helped get through college. When her mother had eye surgery, June even hired local young people to read the newspaper to her mother.

She had a keen interest in other people; in everyone she met, and had a surprising encyclopedic memory for details about the lives of her relatives, friends, and neighbors and their children. Every employee at Kroger’s grocery store in Fountain City knew June, and she also knew them all by name. When she was no longer able to come to the store to shop for herself, many people there still sent notes and enquired about her health.

She loved animals, and knew the name of every dog, cat and horse in the neighborhood. She and her mother enjoyed spoiling their pet cats, (including a white one named “Sugar,”) for many years.

She was known for her kindness and generosity, and for putting the needs of others ahead of her own needs. She gave money or other gifts generously to many people, paid well for all services, and sometimes gave money even to strangers to celebrate birthdays or buy gifts for new babies. For years she frequently wore a red sun hat, and some who benefited from her philanthropy in those days called her “the Lady in the Red Hat.”

She enjoyed celebrations and holidays (especially Christmas) and loved to give gifts to children. She sent many birthday and holiday cards, and the children of her relatives received many imaginative Christmas packages from June.

Every Memorial Day for many years (until she was 88), June placed decorations of potted plants and flowers on the graves of about thirty of her family members and friends who had passed away. Later she collected the plants and gave them to people she thought would enjoy them. She researched the geneology of her family in depth, and distributed a book about the history of her father’s family (the Nifongs) to family members. She felt strongly about honoring her ancestors.

In later years she fiercely guarded her independence and privacy, choosing to live alone with minimal support and very few creature comforts, rather than enter an assisted living facility. At age 90 she had not seen any doctor in years, was not taking any medications, and did not complain about any symptoms. She never wanted to lose her freedom of choice, or be a burden to others in any way.

She was a devout Christian who often spoke to others about the importance of having faith in Jesus Christ, and who donated regularly for a local Bible School Camp. She had no fear of death. She also did not want to own a television or radio, saying she preferred to have peace and quiet instead. June said that during her many years of living alone she was not lonely, because she always had the company of “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.

At 90 she remained a unique person, with sharp wits and a sense of humor. June was someone who went her own way, spoke her mind frankly and cared little for social conventions. (“I don’t give a kitty foot about that,” she would say.) Many who knew her will never forget her.

June said that she did not want any memorial service to be scheduled for herself. However, some of her local friends and relatives say they will feel the need to get together informally—maybe all wearing red hats—to share stories and memories of June. People who wish to share their memories of June may post them here on this website, and/or talk with June’s long time neighbor, Shirley Stout.