She
rode in the president’s ‘Vette but not in his jet
June
Reed is a quiet, private woman living in south Florida after retirement from a
large international chemical company. Yet, she is busy travelling to visit and
help friends and family up and down the east coast. In her seventy-ish years,
she’s active, fun-loving, and with an off-center sense of humor, but her retiring
demeanor belies her past.
June
grew up in Claymont, a suburb of Wilmington, Delaware. She had an identical
twin sister, Jean, who was left blind following an incident with the oxygen
feed in her incubator. June and Jean had a very strong relationship and June
always kept tabs on Jean’s health and well-being until Jean’s death on October
22, 2018.
Sometime
in 1974, June met a young Delaware politician who also grew up in Claymont
before moving to nearby Mayfield. His name was Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Biden lost
his wife and daughter to a tragic automobile accident near Hockessin, Delaware,
roughly eight miles west of Wilmington in 1972. He remarried in June 1977 but
not before meeting a few young ladies.
O
ne
of those young ladies was June. They met at a Junior Achievement Awards banquet
and she rode in his green 1967 Chevrolet Corvette, a wedding gift from Joe’s
father on the occasion of his first wedding. Although the relationship was
fleeting, June always remembered the honor of riding in the ‘Vette.
Like
many teenagers, June made spending money by babysitting local children. One of
those was a little girl who was two to three years old and whose name was
Valerie Bertinelli whom she watched until the family moved out of the area. June
watched Valerie’s growth in celebrity and they still keep in touch
infrequently.
Arguably,
the most famous music festival in America was held in mid-August of 1969 near
Woodstock, New York. Some have falsely claimed to have attended, but June
actually did attend. Her best friend’s uncle had a dairy farm near the site of
the festival and the two young women stayed at the uncle’s house, spoiled by
warm beds at night and full meals during the day when they weren’t attending
the music festival by slipping into the venue through the intervening fields
and where she claims she never inhaled. She noted that the artist most wasted
was Janis Joplin and her favorite act was Santana.
June
filed other accomplishments in her life as well. She, her older sister, and her
father competed in target shooting and won several trophies. She and her father,
Roy, also competed and won competitions in roller dancing, one of those to
Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice.” June has many other accomplishments, both personally
and professionally, many beyond the scope of this post. By the way, her team
won “Best Business” award at the Junior Achievement Award Banquet.
June
Reed is just one example of what this blog is about. We celebrate the lives,
the histories, and the accomplishments of people who, when you first meet them,
you would never know what makes them who they are.
