Obituary of June Roush Brown

June Roush Brown, age 91, of State College, PA died February 14, 2023 at Juniper Village at Brookline, Skilled Nursing. Her husband of 62 years, Thomas B. Brown, preceded her in death in 2017. She was also preceded in death by her sister Gene Roush Jerabek and brother Jay Roush.

She is survived by her daughters Vicki Brown (Rich Morin) of Marysville, WA and Keri Wilson of Oceanside, CA as well as dozens of nieces and nephews.

June was born outside Mifflinburg, PA on June 22, 1931, the daughter of Samuel Irvin and Pauline May (Benfer) Roush. She attended Mifflinburg High School, earned a degree in Art Education from Kutztown University, and taught Art at Gettysburg High School while pursuing her Master of Ed from Penn State. This is where she and Tom met and eventually settled - June teaching Art at State High, when it was on Fairmount Ave, and Tom working as a registered architect and becoming an Associate Professor in Architectural Engineering.

In 1956, June started working summers for the State College Borough's summer playground program. She worked every summer, designing arts & crafts and other programming for Centre Region Parks and Recreation for 60 years. Countless State College kids and their families attended the Peanut Carnival, Talent Show, Fishing Rodeo, Kids on Wheels Parade, Art in the Parklet, or just crowded around a picnic table under a pavilion to make a craft. Those crafts and programs were almost always June's ideas come to life.

When Vicki was in third grade, her Brownie Troop leader moved on to lead the Junior troop. June stepped in to lead Troop 1174 and continued to do so until 2016. When you do the math, it's possible June impacted over 600 Brownie Girl Scouts throughout her 48 years just as a troop leader. Of course, this doesn't include the myriad scouts who sang songs, attended Thinking Day and other ceremonies, or made Brownie Stew at Hootenannies at Holmes Foster Park, Tussey Ridge, Barree, or Golden Pond.

June could make up a song or skit on demand, and after moving to Juniper Village she became involved in the Perennial Players productions of Guys and Dolls, And The World Goes Round, Singin' in the Rain, and most recently Mary Poppins. She would do a crossword puzzle every afternoon and could polish off two or three books a week.

At Vicki and Keri's birthdays, she would design and decorate a special, surprise "theme" cake - before theme birthdays were a thing! For years June made Christmas ornaments for each of her nieces and nephews, some still hang on trees even now! She was especially adept at turning disposable items into crafts and most recently was cranking out a "production line" of holiday table decorations for the Pines dining room.

She was a special lady, and a lot of people were touched by June, even if they didn't realize it until they read this obituary. We'll miss you Mom. Keep singing the harmony part.

A celebration of Life will be from 2:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m., on Saturday, August 26, 2023 at Holmes Foster Park, 901 Westerly Parway, State College. 

Contributions may be made to: Centre Region Parks & Recreation Gifts-For-Parks program at crpr.org, or to your local Girl Scout council at girlscouts.org.