Dorothy June McClintock was born 31 January 1934 at the Gympie Hospital, the first child of Claude and Dorothy Dodt.
June was raised on the family dairy farm at Dagun with her younger brother Lex and went to school at the Dagun Primary School, riding her faithful horse Midge to school each day.
Once June finished primary school she helped out on the dairy farm.
She was taught to sew, knit and cook by her mum from a very early age, mastering all to the highest standard.
The family all enjoyed the close-knit and supportive Mary Valley farming and church community.
Sundays were always spent attending morning church at the Methodist church at Dagun and a hot roast lunch always followed.
As a young girl, June enjoyed attending local dances and visiting the local picture theatre.
It was during one of these occasions that she met Norm McClintock and, usually with both Lex and Norm’s brother Eric in tow, their courting days commenced.
Norm always spoilt June with a box of chocolates whenever they were going on a date.
The couple married on 12 June 1954 and enjoyed 67 years of married life together.
Their first home was at Woondum, on the family pineapple farm, called ‘JT McClintock and Sons’.
It was different back then, with Norm building June their home but completely without electricity.
The lights didn’t come one until power was connected in 1959.
Almost three years later, Lesley, their first child was born, and then in subsequent years Russell, Jill, and Scott came along.
Both Norm and June were very active in the Woondum and Mothar Mountain communities.
June loved being an active member of the Mothar Mountain CWA and held several committee positions.
Their eldest daughter Lesley said the CWA position held by June that she most remembers was as International Officer.
“I remember they would study one particular country each year and we were always looking for pictures to complete a scrap book,” Lesley said.
Mothar Mountain country dances were also a regular part of the couple’s social calendar.
June enjoyed many hobbies, but in particular her garden.
Her collection of roses, bromeliads, orchids, anthuriums, and more is extensive.
The gardens also included many fruit trees.
Visitors never left without a few fresh mangoes, mandarins, oranges, or sometimes grapes.
Lesley said June’s favourite time of the year was the Nambour Garden show.
“Usually visiting with friends, she always had to go on the Friday because she had to have first choice and not miss out,” Lesley recalls fondly.
Her passion for gardening led June to become an active member of the Gympie Garden/Horticulture Club and Orchid Society.
She spent many happy hours visiting different gardens and shows and sometimes hosting their gatherings.
June also actively helped to coordinate the Gympie Chelsea Flower Show and Garden Expos.
She was always very proud of any prizes she won at those events.
Another of her favourite activities was cake decorating and June was proud to belong to the Gympie Cake Decorators club.
“I have lost count of the number of wedding/christening/birthday/anniversary cakes she completed,” said Lesley.
“Not to mention her favourite, Easter Eggs.”
Lesley recalls that June made all her and her sibling’s clothing.
“She knitted our jumpers when we were all much younger and even made our school uniforms,” she said.
“An annual treat was to go to town to choose a pattern and some material and mum would sew us a new outfit for the Gympie Show.
“We would only have to mention to Mum that someone is having a baby and before you knew it there would be a hand-knitted bear, a pram cover and a beanie for the new baby.
“Mum was always a stickler to make sure our outfits matched. I always thought of her as one of the best dressed and best co-ordinated women wherever she went.”
June enjoyed playing social tennis but always put her family first, so she was often too busy taking her children to their sporting events to be able to commit to any regular competition.
She was also greatly admired for her work within the community, icing numerous Christmas cakes for Meals on Wheels each year, cooking for street stalls, setting up for the Gympie Show, working in various roles at the Show, setting up for the annual church harvest festival to name a few.
She would also support and assist Tina Venardos and Dell McClintock in their mayoress roles.
June was a nature lover, and liked to feed the stray cats, the magpies, and kookaburras.
The cats would usually become family pets and the birds would actually eat out of her hands.
She continued to handfeed the birds right up until her final days.
In the mid to late 1970’s, in partnership with Dell McClintock, June purchased a little dress shop in Gympie from Mrs McDade and called it Fashion Affair.
At one point, they actually had five stores, three in Gympie and two in Nambour.
June enjoyed merchandising each store while Dell looked after the back-of-house duties.
They did buying trips to Brisbane each fortnight and many long-term and sincere friendships were formed with their customers.
Family holidays were spent at Noosaville, fishing and swimming in the Noosa River with extended members of the families.
There was often surfing at Noosa’s main beach and water-skiing on the Noosa River.
Sometimes there were trips to Alexandra Headlands for swimming and surfing each day with more extended family, this time on the McClintock side.
Lesley said there was always ice cream after a swim.
“Many hours of fun spent exploring the Alexandra Headland rock pools, playing cricket and badminton and eating water melon in the back yard, playing table tennis on the dining room table often after lunch and again after dinner, quoits and also many, many hours of 500,” she said.
Hervey Bay, fishing trips catching the winter whiting was a highlight every year and June’s favourite holiday destination.
These days were spent pumping yabbies first thing in the morning depending on the tide, fishing, coming home to clean fish, eating fish, and then sitting up at night boning fillets.
June was also a jetsetter, and with husband Norm she travelled to New Zealand and England as well as Tasmania and around Australia on roadtrips with her younger brother Lex and his wife Pauline.
A sad time in her life was the loss of her son Russell in a car accident in 1976 but after the marriage of each of her children, welcomed their partners, Robert, Brian and Alissa as her own children, and so her family grew.
Grandkids, Samuel, Charlotte, Maddy and Tom were the next great highlight and the absolute love in her life.
She was always keen to hear of their exploits and was always proud of everyone’s achievements no matter how big or how small.
Her life with Norm took a minor detour when he lost the lower section of his left arm in a ride-on mower accident in 2002.
After his recovery, the pair made the decision to sell the farm and moved to Gympie in 2004 and lived with Norm’s sister Marge until their new home was built in 2005.
This blank canvas was June’s happy place and she enjoyed her years there creating new gardens and bush houses.
The couple were blessed with amazing neighbours, such as Brett who was incredibly supportive of Norm and June over the years.
In late 2020 both June and Norm’s health had declined and in January 2021 they both moved into Grevillea Gardens.
June helped to care for Norm right up until his passing in August 2021.
She chose to stay on at Grevillea until she went on to join her husband on Monday 22 January, only 9 days shy of her 90th Birthday.
The family of June farewelled her in a moving service at the Gympie Funeral Home on 2 February, with tributes read by her daughters Lesley and Jill, her granddaughter Charlotte and nephew, Rev Gary McClintock.
The service also featured a recorded tribute by her granddaughter Maddy who is currently studying in London.
June will be remembered as a true lady in every sense of the word, always loving, caring, supportive, encouraging, very determined, a fighter and selfless, wife, mum, mum-in-law, grandma, sister, sister-in-law, aunt and great friend to many.
