June Arlene Ferguson (Dean)

June Arlene Ferguson, 91, of Independence, MO passed away on January 23, 2017. Visitation will be from 1-2pm Saturday, January 28, 2017 at First Christian Church, 125 S Pleasant St. Independence, MO 64050. Funeral services will follow at 2pm at the Church. Burial will take place in Salem Cemetery. June was born on June 23, 1925 in Lone Jack, MO. Her mother was Thelma Middleton and her father was Eual Harrison Dean. After they were married, they lived in Lone Jack. When June was born, they moved to Oak Grove, MO. At some time later, they divorced and her father moved to Washington State. After the divorce, Thelma and June stayed in Oak Grove to live with June’s grandparents. Thelma got a job with the Kansas City Journal, a newspaper competitor to the Kansas City Star. It later folded after about 10 years, and the Kansas City Star took over. June attended Oak Grove schools in her younger years. Then, when her mother married Henry McCain, they moved to Independence, MO. This was around the 5th or 6th grade. Then she went to junior high school and then to William Chrisman High School. June and John did not know each other at that time, but they were in school at William Chrisman together. After their school years, John was working on the family farm and June went to work as a secretary to one of the Army Colonels at the Lake City Ammunition Plant offices that were not at the manufacturing plant, but on the hill on Highway 7. June got a degree in school called Civil Service that gave her a right to work as a secretary for the government.
Mr. Harper was a minister in Independence, MO. and also worked at the Lake City Ammunition Plant. Due to the restrictions of gas usage during World War II, June and others carpooled with Mr. Harper to work. Mr. Harper later told John this story about June. As June watched John each day setting out 10-gallon cans of raw milk to be picked up along 24 Highway to be taken to Kansas City’s Country Club Dairy she told Mr. Harper, “I am going to marry that guy some day.” After John and his girlfriend broke up, and June’s fiancé was killed in World War II, they met on the Independence Square at Tastee’s Ice Cream store. John and June were married on June 9, 1946. They moved to the family farm and had a dairy. Times were very hard. It made them better people and they grew very close to each other. They were married for 70 years. Survivors include; husband John Ferguson; son John Stephan Ferguson and his wife Julie; sister-in-law Lorene L. Ferguson; grandchildren Dawn Ann Ferguson and John Scott Ferguson; extended family and many friends