Kathryn June Price

Always unconventional, June Price even chose throughout her life to spell her name differently from her birth certificate. To this day, no one knows how it started.

June was born in Highland Park, Michigan on June 23, 1935. She was the fourth of seven children of George and Katherine Anderson – her siblings were Ruth, Walter, Jeannette, Gail, Irene and Bob. June grew up in her large, loving and rambunctious family which is where her love of family and animals began. She would often tell childhood stories of her “pet raccoon” which lived in the attic, her antics with her brothers and sisters and the livelong lessons of love and acceptance she learned from her parents.

June went to Clawson High School and studied botany at the University of Michigan where she met the love of her life, Bill Price. She loved telling the tale of how they came to be a couple. She was working as a secretary and looking out her office window one rainy day to see a young man on a bicycle. She told her sister that she had the strangest feeling that she was going to marry that man, though they had never met. A day later, he walked through the door of her office on the pretense of borrowing a slide ruler and she nearly fainted. He asked her out and the rest, as they say, is history.

June and Bill married on September 17, 1955 and lived in Michigan for a number of years. During that time, Bill and June opened their home and their hearts to their nephew, Tom Price, as well as one of Bill’s Big Brother kids, Bobby Tarwater. To this day, Tom still recounts wonderful stories from the crazy and loving household that they all shared.

In the 60’s, June and Bill moved to Dallas, Texas where Bill continued working as a life insurance agent for NML. June wanted to have children but was unable to do so. She and Bill applied to adopt a baby in Dallas when they heard of three young children whose parents had died and who were to be placed for adoption. Sight unseen, she called the adoption agency to ask about taking all three of them. On December 20, 1969, June became a mother to a 10, 9 and 5 year old – Doug, Liz & Connie respectively.

As if the adoption were not quite enough, June soon learned that her new children’s natural parents were of Jewish heritage. Always the scholar, she began learning about the Jewish faith. She and Bill fell in love with this religion and decided to raise their children in Judaism. From that day forward, Friday nights became Shabbat dinners, Christmas was replaced with Hanukkah and thus was born Harry Hanukkah to replace Santa Claus. She and Bill made a wonderful life for themselves and their children in Dallas and, later on, in Atlanta, which became her final home.

June’s home was her sanctuary. The rooms and hallways held dear memories of not just her family but of many loved ones that she took in and nurtured over the years. This included her children’s natural grandmother, Ethel Goldat, as well as a multitude of both her and her children’s friends.

Along with her loved ones, June filled her homes with animals of all kinds – cats, dogs, mice, birds – she even tended to the neighborhood squirrels. And her neighbors regularly visited with their pets so that June could greet them at the top of her driveway with hugs and treats.

June loved everyone and had an open heart and a generous spirit. She was a beautiful writer, an avid reader and a wonderful conversationalist, always making sure to stay up on current events and subjects of interest to those in her circle. In the evenings, June could be found sitting in her favorite chair on her patio, smoking (but not inhaling!) a cigarette, drinking a glass of red wine and listening to her favorite shows on NPR. She also had a love of antiques and spent many years working in different antique marts around the Atlanta area. June met and became best friends with Joe Zimmerman, owner of Chattahoochee Antiques, and their friendship is one she treasured and made each day of her life that much brighter.

June lost her beloved Bill on September 15, 2015 but with her loving family and friends in constant contact, she kept her zest for life and her magnetic personality. June was a deeply spiritual woman with a love of poetry, the works of Swedenborg and the teachings of the Zen Masters. She will be so incredibly missed by her family, her friends and her neighbors. She would only want to be remembered with a smile on her face and these favorite words of wisdom on her lips:

What you fear you draw like a magnet

The body is just a vessel

Que Sera Sera

June died unexpectedly in Atlanta, Georgia on June 25, 2017 and is survived by her children Doug (Robin) Price, Liz (Rick Blumen) Price and Connie (Bill Gicking) along with June’s two grandchildren, Lindsay and Daniel; her siblings, Jeannette Hunter, Gail Daugherty; Irene Shrake and Bob Anderson; and her best friend, Joe Zimmerman. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Atlanta Humane Society or a charity of your choice.