June Matheson

June Taylor Matheson 18 February 1918 – 16 March 2006

June Taylor Matheson died peacefully at home 16 March 2006. Her life was a sermon of faith, determination, and love of family and God.

June was born 18 February 1918 in Salt Lake City, the fourth of six children born to Frank Campbell Taylor and Bessie Elinor Taylor. Ever mindful and appreciative of her good parents and heritage, June spoke and thought of herself in the context of her family. Her father??s two grandfathers, President John Taylor and Robert Lang Campbell, were early pioneer leaders. Both men were founding Regents of the University of Deseret later Utah in 1850. Campbell was also the Territorial Superintendent of Schools.

As a girl, June loved her Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on Lake Street in Salt Lake City and the well-tended and fruitful garden which provided for her family during the Depression. An athletic child, she loved to play ball, run-sheep-run, hide-and-seek, and tennis. In the winter, she would walk two miles to Liberty Park to ice skate and then walk back. In the summer, she loved to go to her uncle??s Cokeville, Wyoming, ranch and her cousins?? cabin on the Smith-Morehouse River where she enjoyed hiking and riding horses.

June attended Forest Elementary School, Irving Junior High School, East High School and the University of Utah. At East she played tennis and basketball and was in the opera. She was on the equestrian team in college. Efficient at shorthand and typing, June worked as a secretary in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C. She loved music, art, theatre, reading, and dancing.

In 1944-45, June served in the Western States Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Through the years, she worked in each of the Church auxiliary organizations. One of the great joys of her life was her seventeen years of service in the Salt Lake Temple.

After World War II, June met returning POW Robert Dean Matheson at a fireside where he was the speaker. They were married 3 June 1946. With the help of the GI Bill, Bob finished his undergraduate studies and medical school at the University of Utah. With three sons, ages four, two and one, the young family moved to Portland, Oregon, for Bob??s internship at Good Samaritan Hospital. Shortly thereafter, in September 1951, June contracted the dreaded polio virus and was declared hopeless by her attending physicians. June??s parents cared for her three sons along with David Taylor Johannesen, whose mother Helen June??s sister had been killed the previous year in an auto accident. June, a keenly devoted mother, was bereft of her children for a nine-month hospitalization. With therapy, June regained the use of her arms but never regained the use of her legs. She lived in a wheelchair for fifty-five years. Loyal and devoted Bob never wavered. They are both among the noble and great ones of the ??Greatest Generation.??

Miraculously, June bore three daughters after polio and raised six children from a manual wheelchair. With a positive attitude, she focused all her strength on the things that were most important to her — family and church. June was well acquainted with pain and suffering. Nerve damage denied the use of her legs yet left them more sensitive to pain. Life was so difficult, but she never complained and instead was solicitous of others?? well-being and concerns. All who love her rejoice in her new-found freedom and imagine her dancing, running, and standing tall.

Special thanks to home nurses Maria Gomez, Maria Vasquez, Joann Young, Ruth Martinez, and Lisa Gauchay for their loving and tender care.

June is survived by her husband, Dr. Robert Dean Matheson, and their six children, Dr. Robert Taylor Matheson, Stuart Taylor Matheson Kristi Lynn Bradshaw, Col. Frank Taylor Matheson Laxmi Deva, Mary Ann Matheson Strong Brian Leon, Bonnie Jean Matheson Beesley Horace Brent, and Grace June Matheson, by 26 grandchildren, and by a growing posterity of great-grandchildren. She is also survived by one of her five siblings, Beverley Taylor Sorenson James LeVoy.

Funeral services will be held at 12:00 noon, Wednesday, 22 March 2006, at the Foothill 7th Ward chapel at 2215 East Roosevelt Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah. A viewing will be held Tuesday, 21 March 2006 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Bob and June??s home of forty-seven years at 2070 East Browning Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah and on Wednesday morning from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Foothill 7th Ward. Interment will be in Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park. Services under the direction of Russon Brothers Salt Lake Mortuary, online guest book and directional maps available at www.russonmortuary.com.