The
Story of June
McKinstry’s
Life
Mildred
June Mills was
born on
July 5, 1914 to Tyra and Cora Mills of rural Keenes, IL. Tyra
was a prosperous farmer.
The
family went to
Garrison
Temple Methodist Church. This
Methodist
church preached salvation by grace. They
held revival meetings and those who repented were baptized in the creek. Methodists
used to be very evangelistic, much
like Baptists. The
present-day United
Methodist Church is far different.
June
was
“Converted” in 1927 and
baptized Aug 1927.
June
walked to the
one-room
country school in the neighborhood.
A
change came for her when her parents decided she should go to high
school. This was a
big deal, most people in the rural
neighborhood did not go to high school. It
was
necessary for her to live in Mount Vernon to go to high school.
June
graduated from Mt.
Vernon
High School and went to college at what is now Southern Illinois
University in
Carbondale. At that
time it was at least
mainly a college for training future teachers. She
taught
in many one-room country schools.
In
probably the late
1930’s June
got a job teaching at Duncan School in Perry County, IL. In
that rural neighborhood she met Robert
McKinstry. Eventually
they were married
September 23, 1943, in Geneva, IL.
June
had been teaching
in Geneva,
IL. When a
female teacher got married
she would no longer be allowed to teach school. Married
women “did not work outside the home”. Attitudes
were different then, to say the
least.
June’s
Mother,
Cora Mills “did
not work”. That
is she
did not hitch up
the horses and go work in the field.
Cora raised
chickens, grew a big garden and canned the produce.
This
was a big part of what the family ate.
All
cooking was done on a wood-burning
stove. To do
laundry she had to heat
water in a big cauldron and wash the clothes on a washboard. Cora
made lye soap for the family to use.
But
she “did not work”.
Anyway,
June could no
longer
teach school. By this time Robert had shipped out to the Pacific and
was there
for the rest of the war. June
went
to
Oregon and got a job at a shipyard. For
more about the shipyard, see below.
At
times June worked in
factories
and as a waitress. Also
she
worked as a
nurse at a hospital. The
timeline for
some of this is uncertain, although it must have been during her
college years.
When
the war ended
Robert came
home from the Army. For
two
years he
farmed in Jefferson County, IL. They
lived in the house which had belonged to June’s Grandfather,
Horace Boudinot
Wilson. This was
near June’s parents,
Tyra and Cora Mills. Then
Robert
bought
part of his family farm and farmed in Perry County Illinois. June
taught school in a variety of
places.
This
is a good job
interview
story: June had
decided to quit teaching
and just be a farm wife. The
principal
at Tamaroa High School needed a teacher.
It was
nearly time for the school year to start.
So
he drove out to the McKinstry farm and
asked June to teach. She
agreed.
