June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is a principal character in the American
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
sitcom
A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...
''
Leave It to Beaver''. June and her husband,
Ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...
, are often invoked as the archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s. The couple are the parents of two sons,
Wally
Wally may refer to:
Music
* Wally (band), British prog rock band
** ''Wally'' (album), a 1974 album by Wally
* ''La Wally'', an opera by Alfredo Catalani
Other uses
*Wally (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* WALLY, a propos ...
and
"Beaver". Wally is twelve years old and in the seventh grade when the series opens; Beaver is seven years old ("almost eight") and in the second grade. Episodes followed the escapades of Wally and Beaver and usually ended with a moral lesson delivered to the boys, but also often included reminders of childhood and minor lessons for the parents through the adventures of their boys. She was included in
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
's Top 10 TV Moms from Six Decades of Television for the time period 1957–1963.
June is played by
Barbara Billingsley
Barbara Billingsley (born Barbara Lillian Combes; December 22, 1915 – October 16, 2010) was an American actress. She began her career with uncredited roles in '' Three Guys Named Mike'' (1951), ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952), and '' Inv ...
in both the pilot,
"It's a Small World" (which aired in April 1957 on ''Studio '57''), and in the original television series. Billingsley also plays the character in the show's television reunion movie, ''Still the Beaver'' (1983), and the show's sequel series, ''The New Leave It to Beaver'' (1985—1989). In the sequel series, Wally and Beaver are both parents, and June is a grandmother.
Janine Turner played June in the
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
film adaptation of the original series,
''Leave It to Beaver''. Billingsley made a cameo appearance in the spin-off film as Aunt Martha.
Character overview
Early life
June's birthplace is mentioned in one episode as
East St. Louis[the tv episode itself from the early 60's] while Ward is teasing her about her upbringing and they are discussing how they met. June attended boarding school as a youngster and was captain of the school's basketball team. At one point in her young years, she was a student of Cornelia Rayburn, the principal of Beaver's school. It is implied that June had an affluent upper middle class upbringing (contrasted with Ward's middle class childhood) which may in part account for June's fastidious and fashionable clothing tastes throughout the series. June mentions that she was taught a formal curtsey in the event that she married a diplomat and Aunt Martha frequently proudly refers to their common Bronson lineage. Ward also mentions the Bronson clan's concerns about Ward providing for June in a manner she is accustomed to at their wedding. June mentions her
father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
occasionally. Apparently, he was a practical man, for, according to June, he discouraged her as a child from buying an opal ring in a jewelry store window and urged her instead to spend her money on a pair of
galoshes
Galoshes, also known as dickersons, gumshoes, rubbers, or overshoes, are a type of rubber boot that is slipped over shoes to keep them from getting muddy or wet. In the United States, the word ''galoshes'' may be used interchangeably with bo ...
.
Marriage
As a teen, June knew and dated Ward Cleaver, a farmer's son. Ward lived in nearby Shaker Heights. The two attended State college together. June kept her maiden name, ''Bronson'', as one of her middle names after marrying Ward. Ward and June have two sons, Wally and Theodore aka "Beaver". June's older son, Wally, is a good student and popular with everyone while young Beaver has a difficult time staying out of trouble. The Cleavers live initially at 485 Mapleton Drive and move to 211 Pine Street at the beginning of the third season.
Home life
June is dedicated to her family; her interests outside the home are social events like weddings or school events like meetings and plays. She has ladylike pastimes: needlepoint, cake decorating, and arranging tea roses. She reads glossy but high-toned, tasteful women's magazines. In one episode, she entertains the ladies in her social club only to see the event ruined by Beaver's monkey who despoils the foods on the dining table.
When the boys arrive home from school, June can be found in the kitchen chopping salad vegetables, basting a roast, or icing a cake. Her kitchen is immaculate. Like most TV middle class sitcom families of the era, the Cleavers eat breakfast and lunch in the kitchen while their dinners are full scale affairs in the dining room.
June's taste in home furnishings tends toward British upper class traditional. The front hall in the Pine Street house is adorned with reproductions of
Gainsborough's ''
The Blue Boy'' and
Lawrence's ''
"Pinkie"'' while two
fauteuils grace either side of the hall door. A
Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
hangs on one wall; a
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
hangs in the living room. A wing chair in the living room is upholstered in a
chinoiserie
(, ; loanword from French ''chinoiserie'', from ''chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, literatu ...
print.
June is ladylike and slightly formal in personal appearance, always seen with perfectly coiffed hair and tasteful facial makeup. She is notorious among the show's fans for consistently being dressed as a party hostess, even when doing her housework or relaxing around the house. She wears stylish slacks about the house in a few early episodes, but for most of the series her wardrobe consists of simple but elegant dresses, suits, or skirts paired with blouses or sweaters and high-heeled pumps for shoes. Many of her most attractive housefrocks were worn throughout the series' run. She wears a
pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium ca ...
necklace
A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve ceremonial, religious, magical, or funerary purposes and are also used as symb ...
in almost every scene, even when gardening.
June is thrilled when her sons are invited to
cotillions
The cotillion (also cotillon or French country dance) is a social dance, popular in 18th-century Europe and North America. Originally for four couples in square formation, it was a courtly version of an English country dance, the forerunner o ...
and birthday parties but wrinkles her nose with disgust when they bring home wriggling earthworms or rain-soaked clothing. She was described by her husband in the series as a "former belle of
East St. Louis."
June and Ward sleep in twin beds and have a portable television set in their room. Now and then, she drives the family's Ford Fairlane if she has a specific errand. Ward occasionally dries the dishes for her; at other times, she has to goad him to do minor chores or repairs around the house. June has occasional house help in the person of Minerva and in the later episodes a Mrs. Manners, who (according to Beaver) smells like gingerbread. June does not completely trust Ward's Uncle Billy because he fills her sons' heads with fancies of irresponsible living. She often places Ward in a position where he must "explain" or apologize for his uncle. She is happily married with never a suggestion otherwise on the show.
Relatives
In one episode, June has a sister named Peggy and an infant niece. She also has a spinster aunt named Martha Bronson (
Madge Kennedy), who appears in a few episodes during the course of the series' run. No other relatives of hers appear on the show. June credits Martha with raising her, which suggests that June may have been a motherless child. Though if this was so, it is not said when her mother died, as June tells a story of how she told a lie in school and her mother made her get up in front of the class and admit she lied. In one episode she mentioned having lived with both of her biological parents as a child.
Though Martha is a sweet, kindly woman, her "old maid" mindset irks the rugged Cleaver males. During one of her visits, she makes
milk toast for breakfast and eggplant for dinner. In one episode, she buys Beaver a short-pants suit and insists he wear it to school. In another episode, she presses her wish that Beaver attend a
hoity-toity prep school on the
east coast, far from home. Beaver was named after Martha's brother, Theodore. Martha gives Beaver Theodore's heirloom ring. Another unnamed uncle is mentioned as well.
''The New Leave It to Beaver''
By the time the 1983 movie ''Still the Beaver'' aired on CBS, series star
Hugh Beaumont
Eugene Hugh Beaumont (February 16, 1909 – May 14, 1982) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Ward Cleaver on the television series '' Leave It to Beaver'', originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963; and as private detec ...
had died. As a result, the writers and producers decided to make June a widow.
June still lives in the same home (211 Pine Street) as the original series was set. She lives in the home with her son, Beaver (now a businessman and co-owner of the Cleaver and Rutherford Co. with
Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford) and two grandsons, Kip and Ollie. The living arrangement began when Beaver was divorced from his wife, Kimberly, and Beaver was unemployed; it continued after Beaver found work at a business owned by
Fred Rutherford and after Beaver got fired for taking a fall for a mistake that Lumpy made and after Lumpy got fired too after confessing that Beaver took the fall for him, they decided to form a competing company together.
June is a member of the Mayfield City Council.
June has four grandchildren; in addition to Beaver's sons, Wally (an attorney) and his wife, Mary Ellen, have two children: Kelly (11 in 1985) and baby Kevin. Kevin was born in 1986 and age-advanced to 3 years old. Wally and his family live next door to his mother.
References
2. The unofficial autobiography of Samantha Brown mentions her in a song.
Bibliography
* Applebaum, Irwyn. ''The World According to Beaver.'' TV Books, 1984, 1998. ().
* Bank, Frank. ''Call Me Lumpy: my Leave It To Beaver days and other wild Hollywood life ''. Addax, 2002. (), ().
* Brooks, Tim and Earl Marsh, "
, 9th Ed."
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remain ...
,
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...
,
New York City, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, 2007. ().
* Colella, Jennifer. ''The Leave It to Beaver Guide to Life: wholesome wisdom from the Cleavers!'' Running Press, 2006. (), ().
* ''Leave It to Beaver: the complete first season''.
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
, 2005.
* ''Leave It to Beaver: the complete second season''. Universal Studios, 2006. ()
*Mathers, Jerry. ''...And Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver".'' Berkley Boulevard Books, 1998. ()
* Terrace, Vincent, "Television Character and Story Facts: Over 110,000 Details From 1,008 Shows, 1945-1992," McFarland & Co. Inc.,
Jefferson, North Carolina
Jefferson is a town in and the county seat of Ashe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,611 at the 2010 census.
History
The North Carolina General Assembly created a special commission in 1799 to found a county seat for A ...
, 1993. ().
External links
Character profile at TVLand.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleaver, June
Television characters introduced in 1957
Leave It to Beaver characters
Fictional housewives
American female characters in television