In Memory
June (Wass) Bradley
Dec 31, 1918 - Feb 29, 2016
SOUTH BEND - June Bradley thought she could very well live to be 100... maybe even longer. “My mother's mother lived to be 94 and my mother lived to be 98,” says June, “So does that mean that I am going to live to be 102?” Maybe.
She passed away on Monday, February 29, 2016, at the age of 97, at Woodland Terrace of Longmeadow Assisted Living in Niles, MI.
She seemed to be flourishing at the Sanctuary at St. Paul's where she has lived since 2001. She took part in all the activities she could, including singing in the choir. “I belong to 1st Baptist Church just up the hill (on Ironwood Road) and they wondered why I wasn't singing in their choir, too,” June said with a smile. She can only do so much and, more importantly, she continued to be a faithful church member. “I still sit in the third row from the front like we did as a family,” she said. “We always were by the Poole family and two of the Poole daughters still sit with me.”
But it was in a different South Bend church where June met her husband Ronald. “Mrs. Barnett, one of the Central High School teachers, hosted a youth group at 1st Baptist Church, then downtown, and I started going with friends,” she said. After growing up in Fort Wayne, June and her family moved to South Bend while she was still in high school. It took a while to make connections but the youth group helped, especially when Ronald started paying her plenty of attention.
They were married in 1937 when June was 19. Ronald became an engineer at Bendix and June worked as a bookkeeper and then as a secretary to the President, for different businesses until their four children started coming along. June loved to go out and dance and Ronald accommodated her even though she usually had to find one of their friends for a polka partner. “Ronald didn't like to polka but I liked all the different dances,” she said. “My mother used to say that I started dancing before I walked.”
They lived at the corner of U.S. 31 and Roosevelt Road on the south side. “We often sat out in the front yard,” recalls Larry Bradley, June's oldest child. “When the truckers would downshift coming up that little hill by our house, they would sound their air horns if mom was wearing shorts. She always had nice legs.”
Ronald and June had a great life together until he died suddenly in 1971 after what was later suspected to be Legionnaire's disease. “He had been at a car convention for Bendix at Cobo Hall in Detroit and that's where he contracted it,” June said. Because Ronald had not yet filled out a beneficiary form at Bendix, June wasn't awarded his pension. So she went back to work at Teamsters Local 364 as a bookkeeper and enjoyed her years there. “They still invite me to their dances and other events,” she said.
Her boys, Larry of Niles, MI, Randy of South Bend and Larry took her out to lunch every Friday afternoon, Nik is in Missouri and daughter Candy lives in Frisco, TX with her husband. “They always send me a plane ticket and I spend Christmas and my birthday in Dallas.” June's birthday is on Dec. 31. “So when I was growing up, I got presents that were for both my birthday and Christmas,” she chuckled.
She used to embroider and tried not to miss an activity at St. Paul's. “And I always have a book with me,” June said. When she turned 90, she started another chapter of her life, a life, she hoped, that has more happy chapters to be written.
Visitation will be on Thursday, March 3 from 3 to 7 p.m. in Hahn Funeral Home, 505 W. 8th Street, Mishawaka. Funeral services will be on Friday, March 4 at 10 a.m. in the funeral home with Pastor Diana Thompson of First Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow in Southlawn Cemetery, South Bend.
Source: FindAGrave.com
04/18/2025 EJS
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