June Goode Burr passed away on July 29th, 2024, in Springfield, just weeks after celebrating her 94th birthday, an experience she wryly described to a grandson as “rip-roaring.”
June was born June 17th, 1930, in a log cabin in Christian Country, Kentucky, to Henry Alexander and Pearl West Goode.
Her entire youth was spent during the Depression years and war rationing, forming a frugality that lasted a lifetime; this frugality allowed her great pleasure years later as she was able to make modest contributions to many charities and political causes important to her.
June attended a one-room elementary school and spent two years in Michigan while both parents worked at the Willow Run Munitions Factory during WWII. Back in Kentucky, June graduated as valedictorian of her class at Lacy High School. She attended Bethel Women’s Junior College in Hopkinsville and was awarded the Spirit Cup in her second year.
Following graduation in 1949, June moved to Springfield, Tennessee, to serve as the secretary of Springfield Baptist Church. In that same church, she married William Edward Burr (Bill) the following December and later taught Sunday School for over sixty years.
In the late 1980’s, June returned to serve as secretary at the church once again. In the interim, June and Bill and their daughter Vicki lived in Detroit for several years in the 1950’s and welcomed a second daughter. They returned to Tennessee and June served as the pastor’s secretary at First Baptist Church of Clarksville before giving birth to their son, Jonathan.
The family returned to Springfield in 1963 and June would reside in the same home for (almost) the rest of her life. June enjoyed serving her community at the Gorham MacBane Public Library for many years in in 1970s and 1980s, first as assistant and then as head librarian.
June taught herself to cook and to sew, finishing inside seams so neatly that her mother-in-law claimed the girls’ dresses could be worn inside out. She was a person of deep religious faith and also believed that few situations existed that could not be helped by a good night’s sleep. She rooted for Kentucky Wildcats basketball, preferred cherry furniture with a Queen Anne leg, and was almost fanatical about recycling. She claimed that she didn’t wear purple but looked great in plum.
She was a meticulous record keeper. Appointment reminders, home records, even suggested pallbearers, were written on the backs of envelopes or Sunday School attendance slips (see frugality above). If you’d like to know the cost of utilities in 1978 or where the Dow closed in March 2006, the family might be able to help you. June was highly intelligent and loved to laugh yet her chuckle sometimes followed long after a punch line was delivered.
June was a teetotaler who insisted on “flavoring” in the Christmas boiled custard, “flavoring” apparently being a Baptist word for Jack Daniels. She was a remarkably calm and steady presence. She would not have been described as adventurous, but she took fencing at college, learned to drive a car in her 40s (thanks, Sue!), rode a camel in Israel, and explored New York City landmarks, via subway, by herself. June once walked up to the general manager of the Boston Celtics at the Boston Garden and from her five-foot height gazed up at him and unabashedly quizzed him about the team’s recent loss.
Her 75th birthday was marked with a tour of Great Britain, and she turned 80 on a family visit to New York City. Until her later years, it seemed to her family that June rarely sat down except for church and to prepare her Sunday School lessons. June was patient, kind, self-effacing and quietly funny. She continued to make new friends and admirers in the last weeks of her life.
June was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings (Ailene Goode Simpson, Kenneth Woodrow Goode, and Brenda Goode Davis), her husband of 57 years, and by her great-granddaughter Alicia Randolph.
She is survived by her three children, Vicki Randolph of Springfield, Laurel Burr (Mark Hudobenko) also of Springfield, and Jonathan Burr (Sherrie) of Knoxville, Tennessee. Also surviving are her six grandchildren and their families, her “pride and joy expanded”: Keri Randolph (Brian Purvis) and her son Sam Purvis of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Caroline Randolph (Scott Gray) and her daughter Katherine Randolph-Gray and stepson Deacon Gray of Orlinda, Laurel Randolph (Dan Samiljan) of Los Angeles, California, Walker Hudobenko of Brooklyn, New York, and Guy Burr and Reuben Burr, both of Knoxville. She leaves behind three Goode nieces, Jean Simpson Kiker, Mary Ann Simpson Delaney, Beverly Douglas, many other nieces and nephews, and two dear sisters-in-law, Sue Nelle Burr Ellis and Mary Ellen Burr.
June was petite in stature but large in impact. She was much loved.
The family wishes to thank the staff of Morningside Assisted Living for their care in June’s last months.
June will be laid to rest in Elmwood Cemetery next to her husband, Bill. Arrangements will be handled by Austin and Bell Funeral Home. The family will celebrate the long life of their mother and grandmother at a later date.
If so desired, memorial donations may be made to the Stokes Brown Public Library or to a progressive cause or candidate of your choice.
Austin & Bell Funeral Home in Springfield is in charge of these arrangements.
AUSTIN & BELL FUNERAL HOME-509 WALNUT STREET, SPRINGFIELD, TN (615) 384-1000 https://www.austinandbell.com
For more obituaries visit https://robertsoncountysource.com/obituaries/
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