June Burdette Claunch

June Graham Claunch passed away at the age of 97 years, 8 months and 8 days on October 3, 2023. She was born in Larchwood, Iowa on January 25, 1926 to William Enos Gibbs and Elsa Wilhelmina (Lebeck) Gibbs. Her father abandoned his family when June was 10 months old, so Elsa moved her children, baby June and 3-year-old Musseta, back home to parent's large house, already housing Elsa's grandmother and uncle. Seven years later her mother married William McKinley Larson and they all moved to a 40-acre farm in Lehigh, Iowa; 3 years later June's brother, William Jr joined the family. June lived on the farm, managing the cows and chickens, until she was a senior in high school. It was at this time that her when her parents sold the farm and moved to Fort Dodge, Iowa. June graduated from Fort Dodge High School in June 1943 at the age of 17 and in July she moved to Chicago to work as a secretary in an insurance firm. It was there she met her first husband, Richard (Rick) Graham who was in the Navy and stationed at Great Lakes. They were married in Forest Park, IL on 7 December 1945.

June's life as a Navy wife took her west to Rick's many duty stations (Bremerton, WA; San Diego, Oxnard, Brown Field, Port Hueneme, and Coronado, CA; Barbers Point, Republic of Hawaii, and finally to China Lake). June and Rick had four children, June L, Janice, Richard II, and Charles. The family's final duty station was China Lake and they arrived the first week in January 1959. As a stay-at-home Mom, June was active in the Women's Bowling League, Cancer Dressing, Sewing for Navy Relief, and Den Mother for Cub Scouts. Her favorite past time was selling cards which she continued doing until her retirement from the base.

In October 1964, June switched from full time housewife, to part-time working Mother. She started as a Clerk Typist in the Code 40 mailroom, always taking summers and holidays off to be at home with the children. Once the oldest 3 were in High School, she finally went full time and began to advance her career as a secretary. After almost 28 years of marriage, June and Rick divorced.

June then began the next chapter of her life; and while working for the Inferred Countermeasures Branch, she met Wayne Claunch. They dated for the next 7 years and on 23 January 1980 they were married in Las Vegas, NV. They enjoyed camping, golfing, and traveling around the country seeing all the places June had heard about while working on base. In 1976 June became the Department Secretary for Code 31 (Aircraft Department); she remained in this position until her retirement on 2 May 1986. Once they were both retired, they began taking cruises to Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Panama Canal, Caribbean, and Canada. Wayne passed away in October 2011 and June continued to live at their home until November 2017 when she moved into High Desert Haven.

June is survived by her children and their spouses: June Graf, Janice (Dale) Metz, and Rick (Merry) Graham; daughter-in-law Terri Graham; and step-sons Ken (Leanna) Claunch and Mark Claunch. She is survived by her grandchildren: Patrick Adams, CDR Dennis (Lisa) Metz, Karen Metz (Bart Anderson), David (Candace) Graham, Shiloh (Brandon) Kinne, Tiffany Graham and Timothy Graham. June is also survived by 10 Great grandchildren as well as by her sister-in-law Sharon Larson. June was preceded in death by her husbands, Rick Graham and Wayne Claunch, her parents, her sister Musseta Snow, her brother Dr. Bill Larson, and her son Charles (Chuck) Graham.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday October 28, 2023 at 11:00 AM at the Holland & Lyons Mortuary. Interment will follow in the Rose Garden at Ridgecrest Cemetery.

The family has requested that in-lieu of flowers, donations may be made in June's name to the either the Alzheimer's Association or the American Cancer Society.