June LaVern Stewart
Former EBS Board member, meditation teacher, group leader, spiritual seeker, and friend
(June 1, 1945 - March 1, 2023)
June as we will remember her
Join us for a public memorial service and celebration of June’s life
Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 1:00 pm
EBS, 1516 W. 3rd Street, Little Rock 72201
You can also join on Zoom (Meeting: 897 1801 8327 Password: love)
Her Life: June Stewart of Scott, Arkansas, died Wednesday, March 1, at home with the supportive, loving care of her niece Debra Walters. June was 77 years old. She was born to Elizabeth Viola Anthony Stewart and Geddy Simon Stewart in Pecos, Texas, on June 1, 1945. June is survived by her sister, Celia Stewart, of New York City, and by ten nieces and nephews Debra Walter, of Oakland, California; Terri Brusatori of Santa Rosa, California; Pamela Scherzer of Lower Lake, California; Elizabeth Griffin of McKinney, TX; Cary Anthony of Monahans, Texas; Jay Anthony of Ryan, New Mexico; Janna Anthony, of Paonia, Colorado; Katherine McNeill of Avon, Colorado; Donald Tracy of Columbia Station, Ohio; and Charlotte Stewart-Sloan of Boston, Massachusetts. June was preceded in death by her loving husband, Robert McCollum, who died recently on January 26, 2023; She was also preceded by her brother Jessie Anthony of Monahans, Texas, and her sisters Shirley Walter of Santa Rosa, California, and Florence Miller of Fruita, Colorado.
When her father returned from Word War II, June and her family moved to Paonia, Colorado, and she started school. She had a rich young life. She danced in the local Maypole celebrations and rode a bike in the parade. Her family moved to Hotchkiss, Colorado, in 1954, where she graduated from high school in 1963. June attended the University of Colorado and received a B.A. in Psychology in 1967. After careers as a social worker and a small business owner, she returned to the University of Colorado in 1985, earning a Juris Doctorate and a Master’s in Library and Information Science. June combined her training from these prestigious professions and began the career she loved – law librarian. June said she felt like she found the perfect fit when she began this phase of her working life.
This career took her from the mountains of Colorado to the west, east, and south. June started as a reference librarian at the University of Denver College of Law. Then, she moved to Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, WA, where she worked as a Tenured Associate Director of the Law Library. In 1997, June served as the inaugural director of the law library at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia. Here she had the opportunity to build a law library from scratch. She planned the building, hired the staff, and selected the collection of legal documents. From there, June returned to the law library at Gonzaga University, this time as director. In 2006, June moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she served as Associate Dean of Information Services and Library Director at the University of Arkansas until her retirement in 2013.
June was a teacher as well as a law librarian. She taught legal research to aspiring attorneys throughout her three directorships at the Appalachian School of Law, Gonzaga University, and the University of Arkansas. June formed close relationships with law students. She was a law professor, to be sure, but she was almost like a therapist to many of them, offering a safe space for them to discuss their law school concerns and problems.
June maintained close relationships with law librarian colleagues across the country. June once helped a colleague with a minor financial difficulty. Her support had a notable impact on the colleague’s life. She said about June, “She was a wonderful, kind human being that I think of fondly. I still think about how she helped me that day, and I try to pass along that level of kindness to others. She positively impacted me, and I pay it forward whenever I can.”
June was a spiritual seeker with an open heart. Her curious and independent mind ranged far and wide. She was devoted to seeking truth and felt called to become a teacher. In her early life, she was grounded in Christianity yet was drawn more and more to Buddhism. In Little Rock, she joined the Ecumenical Buddhist Society and here again, she applied her creative and teaching talents on behalf of the community. June served on the board and trained as a meditation teacher. She studied and practiced with Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, and also gave herself to teaching newcomers and non-Buddhists how to meditate, staffing the EBS public meditation classes for several years and also offering meditation instruction in local libraries. She trained as a facilitator with the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) program at Stanford University.
When Covid appeared, June combined her CCT training and mindfulness meditation experience to fashion a zoom-based Loving Kindness and Compassion meditation group. She lead them through a close study of Pema Chodron’s book “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living” – a book about awakening the heart. Creating and leading this group was the finest expression of June’s personal realization and spiritual accomplishment. She was deeply loved by everyone who encountered her in this final teaching role.
So many people loved and appreciated June throughout her life. In the words of a fellow CCT teacher, “June was a very special and pure soul.”
Donations: if you want to honor June by making charitable contributions, please consider two of the ones most important to her: Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, and Ecumenical Buddhist Society of Little Rock. Or simply donate in her name to your own favorite causes.
Information: Info@ebslr.org.
