June Strayhorn Booker

From the preacher we learn that all things-and people-must come to an earthly end; and so time has taken its measure of June.June Strayhorn Booker, the daughter of the late Julius and Viola Strayhorn, who had migrated to Baltimore from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was born in the city on October 1, 1926. Known from childhood as “Bunny,” she attended the Baltimore City Public Schools, receiving her elementary education at William Alexander School #112 and her high school education at Booker T. Washington Junior High School and Frederick Douglass High School from which she was a graduate in 1944. Following high school, she attended Morgan State College and in 1962 was awarded a bachelor’s degree from Coppin State College. Later, June earned a masters degree in education from Morgan State University. An elementary school teacher, June taught all grades, kindergarten through sixth grade, first at School # 126, then at School #18, and she concluded her career at Gwynns Falls Elementary School #60. Of all the subjects she taught, reading was her favorite and nothing delighted her more than to watch a young mind “crack the code” and become a reader. Given her abilities in this area, she eventually left the classroom and became a reading specialist, she was operating a corrective reading program when she retired on October 1, 1986, her sixtieth birthday. As an educator, this teacher was a member of Phi Delta Kappa and was very active in the Baltimore Teachers Union. Yet we know that life is more than work, and June began what was to be a life-long personal fulfillment on March 7, 1947 when she married Hillary Percell Booker, Jr. Together they raised three sons; Hillary III, Mr. Booker’s son from a previous marriage, and their two sons, Gregory Purcell, known to all as “Pancho,” and Brian Randolph. A third underlying force in June’s life was religion. As a child, she was raised in St. James Episcopal Church and later was active in St. Mark’s Institutional Baptist Church. Yet, June’s sense of religion transcended church and imbued her with a spirituality that let her understand and feel the connectedness of all things. To her, all persons and things are equal under God. This perception of connectedness led to her enjoyment of a variety of multicultural experiences, both secular and sacred, from a Hawaiian luau to the service at the end of Ramadan, the Moslem month of fasting. To her family, she was always “Dr. Bunny”, no diagnosis from any doctor was correct until she confirmed it often saying, “Don’t tell me what the doctor said, tell me what you feel.” More often than not, her feelings were correct; she had said about herself shortly before her death, “I keep telling them something is wrong with my heart.” Having the sound underpinnings of family, religion and work, Bunny truly enjoyed life. She loved to travel, visiting Canada, Mexico and Hawaii. But her favorite was the European tour on which she saw the passion play in Oberammergau, Germany.Another favorite pastime was playing cards: she was indefatigable when it came to pinochle and if you played with her, you quickly learned that she had a mastery of all the rules. On this note, she was a member of the Twigs, a fifty-year –old social and charitable club. Bunny was also a staunch member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Liberty Medical Center.Those who know her well know that she was an inveterate shopper, more for others than for herself and even when the gift was something the recipient would never have thought to buy. A great one for saving, she never saw a sale she didn’t like and as Hillary reminisced, Once when I was doing the bills, I told her, “Bunny, please don’t save me any more money by spending it. But if she spent a thousand dollars, she was likely to return $900 before the end of the month.” And now this shopper, this card player, this lover of family and community is forever still. Along with her husband and sons, June is survived by a brother, Junius Strayhorn; three daughters-in-law, Lynn, Teresa and Phadelma; two brothers-in-law, Randolph Booker and Charles McDaniels and a sister-in-law, Frances McDaniels. She also leaves seven grandchildren, Michelle, Marc Danielle, Deirdre, Lexi, Sabrina and Kia, and five great grandchildren, Lisa, Donteris, LaDena, Robert and Josanna.

Tributes

June Strayhorn Booker

October 1, 1926 - November 1, 2001