June Stephens 05/19/2024

June Lois Stephens, an absolute force of nature; a mom, grandma, great-grandma, and great-great grandma; a woman of deep faith; a lover of flowers and birds; a “dessert-first” kind of gal (so you wouldn’t be too full from supper); a woman with the itchiest back you ever met; a bread baker and soup maker; the loudest “yoohoo!”-er; and a sassy pain in the you-know-what, was held by loved ones as she went to meet her Lord and Savior the evening of Sunday, May 19, 2024.
June was born on June 14, 1934, in Mecan Township, Wisconsin to John Hughes and Ruth Hughes (Scheid). She was the tenth of twelve children. On the farm near Deer Park, Wisconsin, she got up to all kinds of shenanigans, especially with siblings Phyllis, Chuck, Helen, and Dave. This included sitting in a row on the house’s roof when eldest sister, Lillian, brought her husband home to meet the family. Born on “Flag Day” allowed her to tell anyone gullible enough that towns decorated with flags for her birthday.
June had three great loves in her life: Alexander (Aldy) Stephens, her children and grandchildren, and BUTTER. She met Aldy at a dance (while on a date with Aldy’s brother, Jim), and they became lifelong dance partners on June 13, 1953. In her words, “he was such a good man.” Together, they farmed his family’s dairy farm and raised seven children, nearly all of which were J-names. When getting your attention, she would run through them all: “June-Joanne-Julie-Jill-Janice-Jackie-whoever you are!” June loved her kids and grandkids fiercely, and one of her most frequently-dispensed pieces of advice was to “play with your kids while they are young.” She took them swimming at the lake, was the pitcher, umpire, or both in their neighborhood baseball games, and once broke her arm skating with them. She poured love into her grandkids, and taught many of them to drive, how to bake bread, and how to make Christmas ham—”grammy ham”. She gave each grandchild a whole box of their favorite breakfast cereal for Easter and served them milk in tin cups, one half-glass at a time, enforcing a strict white-before-chocolate rule. And every grandkid learned from her that a chickadee sings “chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee.” She rarely missed a school program, recital, concert, or ball game. June also tried to instill in her family an appreciation for her third great love: butter. The woman buttered each bite of her cinnamon roll and dragged each kernel of popcorn across the top of the stick of butter. She taught her kids and grandkids to “butter all the way to the edge” and sent back toast whose buttering didn’t pass muster.
June was a woman of deep faith. She expressed this faith in part through her love of music. She played organ and piano at the Assembly of God and was part of the New Richmond community choir. At family gatherings, she could be found at the piano, harmonizing with her sister, Helen. She was always humming a hymn or whistling a tune, and her radio was permanently tuned to the Christian station and could be heard 24-7, coming from the kitchen.
June lived her faith through her two main hobbies: never wasting anything and helping others. Those who met her were only strangers for a few seconds. She would sit in her car while her unenthusiastic grandkids knocked on the doors of strangers and asked if they were going to use
their rhubarb (or tomatoes, or grapes, or zucchini, or apples. Only one person ever turned them down.). She would stop on the side of a country road and say, “go quick, I’ll keep watch” while her grandkids hopped a barbed wire fence to cut wild grapes for jam because “no one was going to use them.” Physically incapable of passing a garage sale without stopping, June’s car was full of things she would pick up and keep until she found the right person who needed them. No family gathering could conclude without hearing June tell one of her daughters or grandkids “you can freeze that!” to avoid throwing something away. June was known for delivering fresh baked bread and homemade bean soup (in a leftover ice cream pail) to those who needed it, and she invited people in for the holidays if they didn’t have a place to go (and even ended up with her son-in-law, Paul, this way).
Always up for adventure, June also loved travel and made her way to Germany, Switzerland, and New York City. She roadtripped to the West Coast, South Dakota, and New York State (Catskills). She saw the Grand Canyon (saying, “oh, that’s a long way down”) and took an Alaskan cruise. On a road trip through the American southwest, she ate her way along the Burrito trail, always insisting on going back to the kitchen to compliment the cooks. Somewhere in Arizona, she laughed so hard she peed her pants, and on the top of Pike’s Peak, Colorado, she was ready to hop on the back of a Harley with a new friend she had just met.
She played a mean game of Chinese checkers, enjoyed a fish fry and a good Tom Collins, had a passion for gardening and feeding the birds, and always picked pink for her nail polish color. She loved feeding people and was known for her ham, Swedish meatballs, burgers fried in a cast iron pan, fried egg sandwiches and fried potatoes, bacon in the microwave, potato salad, bean soup, cinnamon bread, strawberry jam, fruit leather, and rice pudding. She made birthday and wedding cakes for her children, nieces, and nephews, and made frosting roses on your finger while you watched her in action. Her only swear word was “shit,” and it was usually said when she slopped food down the front of her shirt or burned something in the oven.
June was one of the hardest workers you’d ever meet. After graduating from high school, she moved to the Twin Cities and worked at Honeywell making thermostats. Shortly after her honeymoon trip with Aldy, they both contracted polio, and she was told that she would never walk again. June replied, “I will walk!” and she damn well did. In addition to the never-ending work of farming and raising children, she typically worked two or three jobs at a time. She was a waitress at Lundy’s Supper Club, where she snatched fries fresh out of the frier basket; a cake baker and decorator; a rural route mail carrier; a long-time school bus driver; and an adult driver’s ed teacher through WITC. She finally retired after working as a job coach for special needs adults in St. Croix County.
June spent the final years of her life living with Alzheimer’s. While a resident in memory care, she offered advice to those around her and continued to “yoo-hoo!” In the dining room, she sometimes “put on her bus driver voice” and provided instructions for doing the dishes, made sure no one was throwing out any forks, and spoke up when other residents were missing a fork,
beverage, or, of course, dessert. Even as she lost the names of her loved ones and had bad days, she lived with abundance and generosity: by holding the hands of residents new to memory care; by trying to feed the people around her, by reminding us that Jesus loved us and she did too; and by offering everything and anything she had to ease your suffering or make your day a bit better. In her final days, she spent brief moments of lucidity showing her love. She offered to “sit and stay a while,” held hands and cupped loved ones’ cheeks, and smiled in a way that lit up the room.
June was welcomed into heaven by her husband, Aldy Stephens; daughter Joanne Stephens; son-in-law Randy Merkt; parents John Edward Hughes and Ruth (Scheid) Hughes; siblings Mary (Edwin) Buchholz, Lillian (Glenn) Long, Victor Hughes; Alice (Harvey) Anderson, John “Sonny” Hughes, Helen (Jack) Hollerung, Erna (Roy) Jacobsen, Charles “Chuck” Hughes, Phyllis (Jake) Sandmann; in-laws Alexander Joseph and Mabel Stephens, John Stephens, Thomas “Don” (Bette) Stephens, Ed Stephens, Jim (Helen) Stephens, Curt Waalen, and Sharon Hughes, and one-eyed dog, Donuts.
She is forever in the hearts of her children, June Merkt, Julie (Dwayne) Harer, Jill Steel, Janice (Roger) Watters, Jackie (Paul) Warner, and Aldy Jo Stephens; grandchildren Brian Merkt, Brent Merkt, Brad Merkt, Brandon Merkt, Joey (Angela) Harer, Justin (Amy) Harer, Jacy (Josh) Przekurat, Jenna Harer-Nechodom (Jesse), Jake Harer, Jennifer (Joe) Willett, Nicole (Andy) Oman, Tristan Steel, Alanna Warner-Smith (Louis), Jocque Warner, Logan Warner, and Kiarra Warner; brother David (Jill) Hughes; sister-in-laws Jacie Hughes, Mona Stephens, Darlene Stephens, and Mabel (Stephens) Waalen; 20 great grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren; David Steel and Jeanne Aschittino; and the staff of the Deerfield Senior Living Community.
June once told her grandson, “your role in life is to help other people through it.” You can honor June’s life by living that principle; by playing with your kids; and by eating your dessert first. And though this wasn’t part of June’s wisdom, the family might add: if a loved one is sick, or in resident care, to visit them long before their final days, even just to sit with them awhile and watch the birds.
Rest in shenanigans, grandma. Heaven gained a yoo-hooing angel. May you stir up heaven.
Visitation was held on Thursday, May 30, 2024 from 4-7 pm at Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services 728 S Knowles Avenue New Richmond, WI and on Friday, May 31 from 10-11 am at Faith Community Church 1040 Paperjack Dr, New Richmond WI.  A Celebration of June’s Life was held on Friday, May 31, 2024 at 11 am at Faith Community Church.  Interment was in the Boardman Cemetery in Boardman, WI.  Arrangements are with Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services.

Click here to watch the recording of June’s service