FRANCONIA --- June Marian Harding, 73, known to family and friends as “AJ” or “Junie Buggy”, died on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, at the Lafayette Center.
June was born in New London, CT on June 25, 1947, to Henry and Marion (Stitt) Harding.
Growing up she was an inquisitive, friendly, and cheerful child. Books were very important to her from an early age and remained so all of her life. As a child she accepted Christ as her Savior.
After high school, she went to Houghton College to study medicine. After finishing her nurse's training, her love of babies led her to specialize in obstetrics. After a number of years at the same hospital in Brunswick, Maine, her career took a different turn. She became a labor and delivery traveling nurse. This filled a life-long desire to serve others while seeing different parts of the United States. During her life, she also made four trips to Kenya to visit her family there.
She combined her love of her cousins, nephews and nieces, and family of friends with her love of travel. She often planned vacations in which she brought many of them to exciting places like Disney World, Sea World and Bush Gardens. The Rumney Bible Conference played a big role in her life. Most summers she arranged visits to the camp for many of those kids. These trips often included Baker River adventures, Story Land, Attitash, Whale's Tale Water Park, Kellerhaus and The Old Country Store, where she loaded up the kids with their favorite penny candy.
After a fulfilling career as a traveling nurse, she settled down in Portland, ME, where she continued as a labor and delivery room nurse. She left there to provide care for her aging parents in Rumney, NH, where she ministered for 9 years at Care Net Pregnancy Center.
All during her life, she had a deep love not only for nursing and her family, she loved animals. These included animals big and little, horses, dogs and cats, gerbils, guinea pigs and rats. Her life was also marked by her generous heart for those who were down-trodden, and her generosity spilled over to kids from many families, whether by blood or by love.
She leaves behind her brother Jim Harding, and his wife, Joan; her sisters Deb Ferrara and Cynthia McDonald, brother James Blanchard and brother-in-law Phil Neely, as well as many nieces, nephews and cousins. June is predeceased by her parents; the late Rev. Henry and Mrs. Marion Harding, and her sister Cynthia Neely.
In the last few years, she suffered from ill health, compounded by an automobile accident that left her quite debilitated. She spent the last few months of her life at the Lafayette Center, in Franconia, NH.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, July 3, 2021, at 2:30pm at the White Mountain Camps Rumney Bible Conference in the Tabernacle, Route 25, Rumney, NH.
In lieu of flowers June would prefer that gifts be sent to the Care Net Pregnancy Center, PO Box 923, Plymouth, NH 03264.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services and 603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, NH, 03246, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, please visit www.wilkinsonbeane.com.