D. June DeGarmo

Dorothy June DeGarmo,93, passed away peacefully on May 24, 2019. Her spirit was released from her worn out shell of a body, and she is now exploring heaven with angel wings. Born February 5, 1926, in Long Beach, California, she was the second daughter of Carl and Helen Tullberg. She was not always an obedient child, taking upon herself to stuff socks down the toilet and punching the school bully in the face to defend her sister.

Her first job was working in a post office when stamps were only three cents. After that, she helped build airplanes during WWII before enrolling in nursing school.

She hated to be called Dorothy, preferring to be known as June, JuneBug, or “Goon” by her 1942 classmates from the School of Nursing at Methodist Hospital in Gary, Indiana. She remained close friends with her roommate her entire life.

June married Billy Jo Evans in 1951 and gave birth to three girls, Robin, Randy, and Kellie. By 1958 she faced her fear of being a single mother of three with perseverance and fortitude long before daycare centers and support groups for single parents. Too tired from working all week as a nurse at a thermostat control company, she sacrificed weekend get-a-ways, cocktail parties, and evenings out with friends in order to spend time with her girls.

She graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1975 with a degree in Sociology. Known for her kindness, compassion, and respect for the downtrodden and troubled souls she was the head nurse of the clinic at the women’s prison when it opened in Gig Harbor and later, as head of Geriatrics at Western State Hospital where she retired in 1990. After she retired, she continued to enroll in classes from Mexican cooking to watercolor painting, sketching, and woodcarving. June had a love of books, movies, football, a curiosity for the strategies of playing Bridge, and why the popular vote doesn’t mean you win the election over the electoral college.

Being a strong, independent, and self-reliant woman, she never allowed gender to decide for her what she could and couldn’t do. It was that spirit that allowed her to purchase a 30’ fifth wheel, a Ford truck to pull it with and begin roaming the back roads and coastal retreats with friends enjoying the outdoors by fishing, golfing and campfires on clear starry nights.

She was a loyal and faithful friend and mother who put others first and herself last. She knew that there wasn’t anything that can’t be thought of differently and that people who love you, selflessly, just want you to be happy. June had a long-held belief of “why worry about what you can’t control.”

Cheerful to the end as dementia and cancer took their toll, she never lost her faith in God, her positive attitude and grateful spirit.

She will be greatly missed by those closest to her.

Celebration of Life as yet to be determined at later date and place.

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