June Merrell

June Elizabeth Merrell, nee Woodson (1920-2022). May choirs of angels guide you home.

June's last few months were spent near family in Stamford, Connecticut, where she died of natural causes in her sleep. Prior to that, she lived for 51 years in New Jersey — first in Chatham and last in Princeton — 41 years in California, seven in Pittsburgh, and two in Utah.  

Born in Piedmont, California, June graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1942, then went to work for the OSS in Washington, D.C. (Her stories of the trip with her sister, Helen, from San Francisco to D.C. on the eve of war, with a train full of GIs — and passing through New Orleans — are the stuff of legend!) She returned to the Bay Area and went to work for United States Steel, where she met and married the love of her life, Lewis Charles Merrell (known by all as Charlie). Charlie grew up in Pebble Beach and attended UC Berkeley at the same time as June, although the two didn't know each other then. While living with Charlie in Provo, Utah, she organized an airlift of supplies to a small town in Greece in the immediate aftermath of World War II and became a local celebrity for the feat.

At age 62 – after raising four boys — she began studying for her teaching certificate at Kean College in New Jersey, which she completed three years later. This was inspired by a love of working with children that she’d developed years earlier in Pittsburgh, serving as a volunteer teacher for the Head Start early childhood program. June loved travel and in her seventies studied Ancient Greek history and philosophy at Oxford. In that decade, she also traveled to Morocco and Jerusalem. 

As a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, and teacher, June was full of love for others, brilliant, deeply spiritual, strong-willed, and in possession of a sense of humor that endured to the end. She was an amazing cook and hostess, renowned for her dinner parties (as well as the cookbooks that memorialized them). She was also a lifelong philanthropist to many, many worthy causes. 

She is survived by her four sons and their families: Woodson, his wife Kathleen, and their children Caitlin and Isabel; Gregory, his wife Dee, their children Will and Leigh, their grandchildren Bethany, Cara, Norah, Zachary, Collin, Jonah, and (predeceased) Myra, and Greg’s predeceased wife Ann; Douglas; Patrick, his wife Mary Dee, and their daughter Jamison; as well as many nieces, nephews, and cousins — including Guy and Sue Newman and family, Judy and Tom Connell, David, Bill, and Joanne Jouris. June is preceded in death by her husband of many years, Charlie (1920-1992).

In accordance with her wishes, June’s body was donated for medical research through the Anatomical Gift Program to Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.

Rest in peace, dearest June. 

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If you’d like to make a donation in honor of June Merrell, two links are included in the "About" section below. Fairfield County House was the incredible hospice facility that took such attentive and loving care of June during the last four months of her life.