June Morrison

June Neely Morrison (born February 12, 1924, died April 4, 2026) has almost as many descriptors as years lived. Born Eunice Inez Neely, she was Clyde and Mae Neely’s daughter, and sister to her five siblings. A student of the Gilbert Public Schools, she met her late husband Marvin in fifth grade and loved him from then on. Marvin and June started at University of Redlands together, and, when Marvin went with the Army into World War II, June moved home to Gilbert to be a bookkeeper at the Hayden Flour Mill, while also a student then graduate of Arizona State University. When he came home from basic training before being deployed—and against his own advice given to his enlisted men, lest they leave them widows—she became Marvin’s wife.

After the war she became mother to Richard, Scott, and Howard. She also birthed both a son—Mark Allen—and a daughter—Marsha Marie—who died after only a few days of life, but June was a survivor and great believer in humility as essential to—and hardship as a builder of—character: while God is good, life doesn’t owe us anything. What we make of it is up to us. For example, June made room for Namsoon Kim in her home as a foreign exchange student in 1977, and in her heart forever after.

June was the organist for Gilbert United Methodist Church until she could no longer see due to macular degeneration, but remained a choir member most of her life. She was a board member of Chandler Hospital, and, with Marvin, a founder of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy and the Morrison School of Agribusiness at Arizona State University.

Even through age 101, June was hostess to Christmas and Easter celebrations at her home, where she lived—with the devoted help of Donna Proctor—until she died. Thanksgivings—being a gathering of all the Neely's, and too big for any house—were held at the church fellowship hall.

June was a gardener all her life, and a grower of opportunities. She was a supporter of her church, United Methodist Ministries, Habitat for Humanity, Chandler Center for the Performing Arts, the Child Crisis Center, the Phoenix Zoo, and many other community and mutual aid groups, both personally and through the Neely Foundation, which she helped form in honor of her late brother.

Those she is survived by start with her sons and their wives: Richard and Elaine, Scott and Stormy, and Howard and Jana. Her grandchildren are: Julie, Ellen (married to Colin Kennedy), Lacie, Krista (married to Chris Carrera), Jamie, (married to Ben Ihms) and Jesse (married to Danielle), Michal Ann, Kyle, and Allyn. Her great-grandchildren are: Parker, Piper, Willa, Matthew, Zoe, Ethan, Malachi and Maya. Collectively, June’s family has served, won, graduated, performed, developed, were ordained, founded and managed businesses, traveled, wrote, acted, recorded, played sports and music, and danced—and she would tell you about any, or all, of them before she’d think to mention any news of her own.