June Burn (1893–1969) was an American writer and columnist.

Background and Career

Burn was born Inez Chandler Harris on June 19, 1893 in

Anniston, Alabama Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Acco ...

. Her father was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

circuit riding minister. At age sixteen, she moved to

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

and eventually graduated from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. Many years later, she completed her M.A. in Soil and Nutrition under

William Albrecht William Albert Albrecht (September 12, 1888 – May 19, 1974) chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri, was the foremost authority on the relation of soil fertility to human health and earned four degrees from the Universit ...

at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. In 1917, Harris started working as a staff writer for ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-f ...

'' in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Two years later she met and married Farrar Burn (1888–1974), a recent

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veteran, while living outside of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Over the next fifty years, Farrar and June travelled extensively around the United States, homesteading in the

San Juan Islands The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...

, teaching Eskimos and traveling across the United States in a

covered wagon The covered wagon or prairie wagon, historically also referred to as an ambulance or prairie schooner, was a vehicle usually made out of wood and canvas that was used for transportation, prominently in 19th-century America. With roots in the he ...

. She wrote extensively for various periodicals and wrote several books. Burn's autobiography ''Living High: An Unconventional Autobiography'' (1941) documents much of her early life story, particularly her time on

Waldron Island Waldron, also known as Waldron Island, is an unincorporated community in San Juan County, Washington, United States. Its population was 104 at the 2000 census. Waldron is in the San Juan Islands. It is designated as a Limited Development District ...

and other islands in Washington's San Juan Islands. The book has been republished several times. June Burn died in 1969 and her husband Farrar died in 1974. They were both buried in

Van Buren, Arkansas Van Buren ( ) is the second-largest city in the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area and the county seat of Crawford County, Arkansas, United States. The city is located directly northeast of Fort Smith at the Interst ...

. Burn's daughter-in-law,

Doris Burn Doris "Doe" Burn (born Doris Wernstedt; April 24, 1923 – March 9, 2011) was an American children's book author and illustrator. She lived most of her life on Waldron Island in the San Juan Islands archipelago of Washington. Life and career Do ...

, was a notable children's book author and illustrator.Center For Pacific Northwest studies "The June and Farrar Burn Papers:Biographical Note" http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/cpnws/burn/burnbio.htm

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burn, June American magazine journalists 20th-century American memoirists 1893 births 1969 deaths American women essayists American women journalists American women novelists American women memoirists Oklahoma State University alumni University of Missouri alumni People from Anniston, Alabama Journalists from Alabama Novelists from Washington (state) 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers People from San Juan County, Washington