Obituary of June E. Gurnett

JUNE E. GURNETT June E. Gurnett, of Clifton Park, longtime teacher, civic leader and traveler, died Monday at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center after a lengthy illness. She was 78. She was born to Marguerite and Chester Burnett in the Schuyler County village of Burdett, above a creek which flowed into Seneca Lake. Her father was a postmaster and her mother a school teacher and baker of cherry pies. June was valedictorian of the class of 1950 at Watkins Glen High School. On her senior trip to Washington, D.C., she fell in love with one of her mother's most unruly pupils, her classmate Daniel Gurnett. They married in 1954 and had three children. She earned bachelors and master's degrees in government from Cornell University, where she was a Kappa Delta Sorority member and a crack bridge player. As a young mother, June co-founded the Burdett Village Library and later kept score at her son's Little League games. After moving to the Capital Region, she taught social studies for two decades at Shaker Junior High School. At home, her dining room table was routinely piled with student papers and petitions for political candidates. In the 1980s as Clifton Park's Democratic Chairwoman, she led the party to its biggest electoral victory in town history, winning the supervisor's race and control of the town board. She later chaired the town's Environmental Conservation Commission, fighting to preserve wetlands in a rapidly developing suburb. June frequently walked for peace, belonged to the Interfaith Alliance of New York State and was a soprano in the choir at the Charlton-Freehold Presbyterian Church. She traveled throughout Europe, did Tai Chi on the Great Wall of China, took in the opera in Prague and traveled the American West on elder hostel excursions. In her late 60s, she took up watercolor painting. But her favorite activity was paddling her canoe on the unpredictable waters of Seneca Lake. She is survived by her brother, William C. Burnett, of Slingerlands, her children Kate Gurnett (Yancey Roy) of Albany, Mary Elizabeth (Polly) Gurnett of Saratoga Springs and Daniel Gurnett of Clifton Park; her grandson Benjamin Smith of Saratoga Springs, her niece Caz (Tim) Bezanson of Tucson and nephews Bob (Sue) Burnett of Slingerlands and Tom Burnett of West Sand Lake and numerous cousins. Relatives and friends are invited and may call on Sunday March 13, 2011 from 1-3 pm at Dufresne & Cavanaugh Funeral Home, Ltd., 149 Old Loudon Road, Latham. Memorial services will be held on Monday March 14 at 10:30 am at Charlton-Freehold First Presbyterian Church, 768 Charlton Road, Charlton, NY For directions, information or to light a memory candle for the family please visit www.dufresneandcavanaugh.com