June Audrey Kaminski

June G. Kaminski left this world on March 23, 2018, in Abilene, Texas. She approached herdeath exactly as she approached her life; by her own rules and on terms she defined for herself.

In her 87 years, June accepted unique challenges and conquered familiar stereotypes. In theend, the words left to define one’s life could be somber and, understandably, sentimental butthat is not who June was and that is not the life she lived. She would have been completelyuninterested in that sort of thing. 

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road. 

June was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 20th, 1930. The youngest of six children to Edward and Antoinette Garrison. As any kid, being the youngest of six knows, one must be scrappy or cunning to survive a household of older siblings. She defied the odds and managed both.

Perhaps by nature or possibly circumstance, June was an undeniable force of nature. She was,quite simply a fighter. Had her spirit ever been broken, no one knew it.

June worked in a time when women did not work outside of the home. She taught herself todrive a car out of spite. Apparently, someone told her women couldn’t wrap their minds around a manual transmission. You don’t even want to know what happened when that same person suggested a woman couldn’t change the oil on said vehicle. June made independence the top of her bucket list.

Marrying and raising two children in Des Plaines, Illinois, June put herself through night schoolearning an education in Nutritional Science which provided her the opportunity to run a pilotprogram offering satellite lunches to children in 6 different school districts.

The death of her husband, Eugene, and the 1970s brought June to Texas where she continuedto feed kids. She managed several school cafeterias in San Angelo and Brackettville as well girlscout camp, Jo Jan Van, in the Texas Hill Country.

June was a known rule breaker. She was constantly feeding the kids who had overdrawn ontheir lunch card account. Smuggled food home with the one’s she knew wouldn’t have enough to eat on the weekends. No person (or cat, dog, goldfish, or raccoon) was turned away hungry,or cold, or frightened. She was a staunch champion of those who had none. June truly lived her life to serve others. No seriously. You couldn’t leave her house without a packed lunch for the next two weeks.

June was a lover of cigarettes (without filters) and black coffee.  She was a ruthless Bingo enthusiast, garage sale aficionado, a shrewd card player (no one is suggesting she cheated, but she did win a lot). Her favorite game was sending people into a grocery store in search of items that don’t exist. The proverbial “snipe hunt” if you will. To this day, no one in the family has procured a package of Gravy Master. She swears it exists. No one’s convinced.

June was loyal and fierce, kind, protective, and illogically generous. She loved her familyentirely and unconditionally.

She is preceded in death by parents: Edward and Antoinette Garrison, siblings, Rose, Leonard, Pearl, Floyd, and Donald.

Among those who will miss her most is her beloved children; daughter, Jo Ann, and son-in-law, Dr. Gorman Thorp; son, Larry and daughter-in-law, Leticia Kaminski; granddaughter Kristina Kelsey and husband, Travis; great-grandchildren, Sage and Ryson Richardson; grandson David Luna and wife, Liza; and granddaughter Teresa Luna, as well as many adoring great-grandchildren.

June lived and loved wholly. She had a good life. A life she can be undeniably proud of. Her spirit and tenacity will live on in her children and the children of her children until such things can’t be tracked down to the exact root, yet it will exist, and it will all be because of a little fighter named, June.

Oh, and she always felt she should have been named Ruth.

In lieu of flowers, a contribution to Rescue The Animals would honor June immensely.

www.rescuetheanimals.org