June Culpepper

June Culpepper, known in Boulder City, as June Mason, passed away peacefully at the Boulder City Hospital on Tuesday, January 19, 2016, at the age of 84. She was born at home in Ponca City, Oklahoma, to Richard and May Marlow, a farming family. As a teen, she sold watermelons by the roadside, drove farm equipment including dirt trucks, and by high school was milking twenty cows by hand before and after school.

June attended Oklahoma State University but headed to Denver, Colorado, after three years of college. She used her excellent shorthand and typing skills to land a job at Continental Oil where she met Gene Mason. Together they started a life, eventually moving, with their daughters, Cynthia, Teresa, and Marlena, to Boulder City, Nevada, in 1962. They all lived in the little pink house across the street from the Boulder City Junior-Senior High School which allowed the girls to participate in all the wonderful activities Boulder City had to offer.

June started as a library assistant at the Boulder City High School in 1966 and eventually became the principal's secretary until 1976 when she was hired for the Reading Center at the University of Nevada, College of Education, Las Vegas, Nevada. She returned to Oklahoma to be closer to her family in the 1980's and worked as an editorial assistant for the University of Oklahoma, Department of Botany and Microbiology, in Norman, Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City was where "Junebug" met the love her life, George Culpepper. Upon retiring, they moved to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where they enjoyed a fabulous 25 years together involved in St. Thomas Episcopal Church, planting a garden, and mowing three acres of grass surrounding their red brick house. Together, they wrote a children's book, The Adventures of Frog Prince and Junebug, for their grandchildren. June also helped George write his World War II memoirs and cooked lots of fried chicken and apple pies. Her daughters, moved her to the Nevada State Veterans Home last spring to help with her care after she was diagnosed with dementia and congestive heart failure. They will always be grateful for the work ethic skills their mother taught them.

June is survived by her husband, George Culpepper, Pawhuska, OK, and her daughters, Cynthia Reed, in Reno, NV; Teresa Stankis, Santa Maria, CA; and Marlena Lopez, Boulder City, NV; and her grandchildren Jacquelyn Bonde, Reno, NV; Rebecca Reed, Reno, NV; Eric Stankis, La Quinta, CA; Jessica Stankis, Santa Maria, CA; and Jena Lopez, Boulder City, NV; plus step-son, Tacy Culpepper , Oklahoma City, OK, and step-daughter, Janice Culpepper, Seattle, WA. June met her first great grandchild, Silas Bonde, 9 months, on Christmas Day 2015. June has five surviving siblings: Vern William Marlow, Stillwater, OK; Sue Streeter, Claremore, OK; Carol Pepper, Broken Arrow, OK; Victor Marlow, Golden Valley, AZ; and Roger Marlow, Dardanelle, AR. She was preceded in death by her mother, father and her brother, James Marlow.

A memorial service will be held at the Nevada State Veterans Home Chapel, 100 Veterans Memorial Dr., Boulder City, NV, on February 13, 2016, at 2 pm.

Another memorial service will take place in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, on June's birthday, April 24, at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church: Luncheon at 11:30 and Service at 1 p.m. followed by the planting of a deep-red crepe myrtle tree in her memory next to the June Culpepper Memorial Porch.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Boulder City High School Library, 1101 Fifth Street, Boulder City, Nevada 89005 or St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 817 Leahy Avenue; mail to P.O Box 1476 Pawhuska, OK 74056, for bench, picnic table, or perennial flowers. Family and friends can sign an online memorial guestbook at www.bouldercityfamilymortury.com