June H. Kern, 93 yrs. young, passed away at Sunrise on Thursday, July 24th in Wolf Point, MT and went home to be with her Lord.
June was born June 12th, 1921to Amzey and Lydia Dunn in a farm house south of Whitetail, MT. She attended school in Whitetail by riding, in the early years, a horse-drawn wagon (or sleigh in the winter). After graduating high school, she attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, MN.
When WWII broke out, June and her best friend Pauline, moved to Oregon and worked in the ship yards to support the war effort. While there, she met a handsome Army soldier from Missouri named Michael Kern. They fell in love and were married July 9, 1943. They celebrated 71 years together just a few weeks ago.
June followed Mike as the Army moved him between OR, CA and WA. In 1944,
When Mike shipped overseas, June, who was pregnant, loaded their belongings in a 1938 Plymouth and headed back, by herself, from Oregon to her parents’ farm in Whitetail. Gas, tires and certain commodities were rationed in those days. What a brave woman she was to attempt . . . and complete . . . this journey! She had a can-do spirit that never left her.
While Mike was overseas, June lived with her parents and gave birth to their first child, Mike Jr. After the war was over, Mike joined June in Montana. They lived in Scobey where their second child, Nancy, was born.
In 1950, they moved to Frazer, MT where Mike and June were in charge of the dormitory where high school students who lived too far out in the country to commute daily, lived. Mike also drove bus and June cooked all the meals daily for the students. Many memories and wonderful lifelong friends were made during their time in Frazer. Years later stories of those times would be shared sitting in Mike’s Furniture store when the ‘student’ would come in to buy a sofa or a bed. In 1952, a small trailer was bought and they traveled following work in the oil fields and the building of Garrison Dam in North Dakota.
In the spring of 1954, the family moved to Wolf Point in a car pulling a 37’ house trailer and arriving with 35 cents in their pocket. The next day, June got a job as the cook at the Cozy Café and Mike was hired by the local Buick dealership. Wasn’t long before June was hired as head cook at the Sherman Hotel where she cooked for several years.
A big oops…surprise came along 4 years later when Patti was born. Mike Jr was 13 and Nancy was 11.
Around 1962, June was hired in the government ran Federal Crop Insurance office in Wolf Point. She and a business partner later opened their own Crop Insurance Agency. She subsequently sold her interest in that business to her partner but after a short period of retirement, her former customers encouraged her to go back into business, and she opened Kern Insurance Agency in Wolf Point. When she sold that agency, she retired for good.
Not long after June retired, Mike closed the 2 furniture stores and retired also. They then enjoyed almost 25 years of traveling in a motor home or 5th wheel trailer, visiting all but 2 or 3 states and most of the Canadian provinces. They even drove their motor home into Mexico and spent one summer in Alaska.
June loved to cook and having her family over was the highlight of her day! She loved having her grandchildren help her in the kitchen and because of her patience with them, all are pretty good cooks! Her cinnamon rolls were the best! When she wasn’t in the kitchen, she was at the table doing whatever new craft project was going around. She sewed hundreds of Christmas stockings for the children through missionary work.
June adored her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She lived these last few years knowing that there were more grandbabies on their way….
June became a Christian as a child. She loved the Lord, her church and serving people. While attending the Wolf Point Assembly of God Church for over 50 years, she taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, organized and cooked for 100’s of church gatherings. She was President of the youth group until she had to give up that position when she turned 35. On the day she resigned, she was elected President of the Women’s Missionary Council, a position she held for probably 20 years. June was elected to the church’s Board of Directors and may have been the first woman to serve in that capacity in an Assembly of God Church in Montana. June was known as a prayer warrior. She was a shining example of God’s grace and leaves behind a great legacy for her family to embrace.
Wolf Point was June & Mike’s home for over 58 years. In 2011, they moved into Nemont Manor in Glasgow and she had just recently moved into Valley View Home because of declining health & to be closer to Mike.
June is survived by her husband of 71 yrs, Mike Kern Sr. Her son, Mike Jr. and wife Grace of Detroit, Michigan; daughter, Patti Kern Parcel and husband Duane of Wolf Point, Mt; and son-in-law Don Turner of Glasgow, Mt. Her daughter Nancy preceded her in death in 2013. June had 8 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren with 1 more on the way.
She will be forever in our hearts.
A Celebration of June’s life will be held at 1 p.m. at Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel in Wolf Point on Wednesday, July 30th. Interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery in Wolf Point.