Earle K. June

Earle June was born in Udall, Kansas on May 22, 1914. He was the fourth child of Grace and Charley June. He had two sisters- Ethel Wells and Evelyn Saft and a brother Everett June that have preceded him in death.

Earle attended the Udall schools and graduated from High School with the class of 1932.

During High School, Earle was a star basketball player. He played first team all four years of school. He excelled in band. He played in position of 1st chair.

The 1930’s were the worst of the Great Depression. No jobs were available. Earle’s dad helped Earle start a gasoline filling station. Not having had any business experience, Earle let his customers charge their gasoline. They had no money to pay. Earle’s business failed.

A school in Wichita was teaching a course in welding. Earle graduated from this school, but there were no welding jobs available. The welding school got Earle a job of helping an electrician hang fluorescent lights in business buildings in Wichita. The fluorescent light was new.

The aircraft industry was starting in Wichita. Stearman (now Boeing) needed welders. Earle was hired in. The company wasn’t organized. Earle then hired in at Beech. Earle got paid only when Beech sold an airplane. So Earle hired in at Cessna. Cessna had been making airplanes for ten years. Starting pay was only 18 cents an hour. Wages eventually climbed, and soon Earle was made Crew Chief over welding. Earle stayed with Cessna 35 years before he retired in 1976. Earle was 62.

During Earle’s time spent at Cessna he worked at various jobs but always was over welding. With Earle’s outgoing personality, he was a very good salesman for Cessna.

Earle was just out of High School at a church party when he met the girl who would be his future bride. After a five year courtship, Earle June married Ethel Adams of the Red Bud Community. They were married in the home of the Bride’s parents, Jett and Jocie Adams. The wedding was in the same house which Ethel was born. The newlyweds traveled to Niagara Falls, New York. It was the “high-light” of their honeymoon.

Ethel was a school teacher who retired at age 62 in 1976. During the couples working years, they vacationed in Colorado- living in the cabin they built at 10,000 feet elevation. Earle always “caught his limit” of trout in the lake. The family and sometimes guests often enjoyed trout dinners.

During his working years at Cessna, Earle spent evenings and Saturdays building houses. He built ten in all, for the 29 years after Earle retired from Cessna. The family spent the winters in Texas and the summers traveling. The family was members of the Good Same Travel Club. The travel included all the provinces of Canada, all the lower 48 states, and the state of Alaska. Sharon especially enjoyed traveling.

At age 92, Earle, Ethel and Sharon came home from Texas to stay. Too old to travel,

the family enjoyed living in the home they had built on their farm. Earle departed this life on December 6, 2010 at the age of 96. His funeral services will be held Thursday, December 9, 2010 at Senter-Smith Mortuary Chapel at 2:00 p.m. Earle’s final resting place will be at Red Bud Community Cemetery, in Udall, Kansas.