June L. Whitehorn, 97

June L. Whitehorn, 97, of Blair; died Wednesday June 25, 2008, at Crowell Memorial Home in Blair.

Funeral services were Saturday, June 28, at Rush Family Chapel of Onawa, Iowa. Interment was in the Belvidere Cemetery at Turin, Iowa.

June Lucille Leff was born June 1, 1911, in Belvidere Township near Turin to Oscar and Jessie (Perry) Leff. She attended country school, then transferred to Turin School after the family moved from the Leff family farm to a farm north of Turin. She was a member of the first class to graduate from the new high school in Onawa in 1929.

As a high school student, she majored in Normal Training, which prepared her for teaching in the rural schools of Monona County. Her first teaching assignment was at Hiawatha Rural School, where she had begun her schooling, as had her father before her. She continued her college education at Cedar Falls and LeMars, Iowa, and in Blair, and graduated from Morningside College in 1958. In nearly 30 years of teaching, her schools were Hiawatha, Arcola, Kennebec, Franklin Township, Whiting, Ute, and Logan-Magnolia, before retiring in 1976.

She was the last teacher at Franklin School, which is now part of the museum complex in Onawa. Upon retirement, she moved to Center Heights in Onawa, and moved to Blair in 2007. She was an avid reader and enjoyed extensive travel, sewing and crocheting.

In 1934, she married Howard W. Whitehorn at The Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. They lived in Monona County for several years, then the family moved to locations for Mr. Whitehorn’s construction jobs, including Burlington, Iowa, Yakima, Wash., and Ridgecrest, Calif. Mr. Whitehorn died in 1980.

As a young person, she was active in the Methodist Church at Turin. She was baptized at the First Baptist Church of Ridgecrest and then transferred her membership to the Church of Christ in Onawa upon returning to the community.

She is survived by four daughters and sons-in-law, Phyllis and Merlin Myers of Blair, Carol Parker of Honolulu, Hawaii, Shirley and Hermis Waller of Surprise, Ariz., and Wendy and Robert Changstrom of Pillager, Minn.; son, Kenneth Whitehorn of Eden Prairie, Minn.; daughter-in-law, Lois Whitehorn; sisters-in-law, Leona Leff of Sioux City, Iowa, and Levone Leff of Marysville, Wash.; nine grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; a great-great-grandchild; many nieces, nephews and cousins.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by a son-in-law, Jere Parker; brothers, Allen Weare, Roy Burdette, Charles and Oscar Jr.; and sister and brother-in-law, Mae and Chris Gregersen.