This is Your Life Grandma

I, Ron Chamberlin, June's oldest son posted and annotated these photos of Mom.  They represent a snapshot of her long and full life.  They include pictures of her and my Dad, Jean Webster Chamberlin, when they met, married and began their family.  I have a box full of old negatives from our family growing up, some of which I will duplicate and include here as I can.  Mom and Dad were married for 19 years, but divorced while I was a Junior in high school in 1955.  Mom met and married Joesph Anthony Vitellaro in 1959, the year after Rosalyn and I were married in 1958.  So since this is a photo history of Mom's life, Dad disappears and Joe is seen in many of the remaining photos.  Joe and Mom were married for 51 long years, when she died in October 2010.   Some of these photos include other family members.  I have tried to make it clear who they all are.  Also, I have fewer photos of the last 50 years that include Mom than I do of her earlier years.  I will need to collect more photos to flesh out this work.  If you have any you would like to include, let me know.

You can click on any of these photos to enlarge them for closer viewing.

June Irene Porter born February 5, 1919 (Pueblo, Colorado)

Mom's parents: Athel Stephen Porter
and Genevieve Irene Thatcher

June - age 6 months (1919)



June - age about 9 months (1919)



June - age 1 year (1920)

June and her Kitty - age 1year (1920)  




June's Grandpa (John Sherman Thatcher), her Granny (Abbie Dell Updike),
 her mother holding June age 1 year,
 and her father - Pueblo, Colorado (1920)

 



June - 1 year  - Posed by photographer that
traveled the neighborhood taking family photos (1920) 




June - 1 year (1920)

   


June - 3 years (1922)

June - age 3 (1922) in the same dress her mother wore at the same age
 in a picture taken staged by a chair a generation before 



June - age 4 with her mother Genevieve (1923)

 

June - age 5 (1924) in ballerina slippers
standing on her toes in the grass




June - age 5 (1924)




June - age 5 an ostrich farm in Pasadena, California (1924)





June - age 5 (1924) on a fishing trip with her father (right) and friends



June - age 5 (1924)

June - age 5 (1924)



June the ballerina - age 5 (1924)




June still dancing - age 5 (1924)

 

June - about age 7 (1926)



 

June - age 11 (1930) dressed like Tom Sawyer
with her mother Genevieve at the boarding house
she ran in Los Angeles, California after leaving
her husband Athel Porter in Pueblo, Colorado. 
They were divorced shortly thereafter. 





June - age 11 (1930) dressed like Tom Sawyer
with her dog 'Totem'





June - age 11 (1930) dressed like a bum
(she was quite the character)




June - age 11 (1930) in the same outfit



June - age 12 (1931)

 

June - age 12 (1931)



June - age 12 (1931) with a friend



June - age 12 (1931) with her mother Genevieve behind her,
her Granny Abbie on the right and someone we don't know
on the left.  We don't want to talk about the bathing suits!

 






June - age 16 (1935) in a sewing class at Southgate High School,
Southgate, California.  The boarding house where she lived
with her mother was actually in Watts, in south Los Angeles.
Since her mother did not want her going to school in Watts,
she transported her to Southgate where June met and fell in
love with Jean Webster Chamberlin
 

 

June - age 16 (1935)

  

June - age 17 (1936)




June - age 17 (1936) with Jean Chamberlin
ready for his Southgate High School prom




June - age 17 (1936) ready for Jean's
high school graduation in June



June - age 17 (1936) ready for Jean's
high school graduation in June

 

June (age 17) and Jean Chamberlin (age 18)
in their wedding photo 23 August 1936. 
Jean was operating an elevator in the Spring Street Realty
building in downtown Los Angeles.  It was probably the
same building where his father (Dr. Frank Harrison Chamberlin)
had his office at 548 South Spring Street.  That building today
has been refurbished and converted to apartment lofts.

June - age 18 (1937) June & Jeans new Plymouth

June - age 18 (1937) with Jean

 

June - age 18 (1937) The year before June and Jean were married in 1936,
June's mother Genevieve (my Granny) married Alfred John Fischer 8 June 1935. 
He was the only Grandpa I was really close to.  He is standing behind
June and her mother.  Standing behind June and Jean is Genevieve's
father (June's Grandpa) John Sherman Thatcher.  His wife
Abbie (June's Granny) had died in December 1934.










June - age 18 (1937) in Tiajuana, Mexico with her mother, Genevieve,
one of Grandpa Thatcher's sisters and someone we don't know.




June - age 18 (1937) with Jean, his sister Adelaide and her husband Russell Burkholder

  

June - age 19 (1938) with Jean and his father
Dr. Frank Harrison Chamberlin who was a Shriner.
He was always Grandpa Doc to us,
but he died in 1945 when I was only 6 years old




June - age 20 (1939) with Jean and me (Ronald Jean Chamberlin)
a few months old.  I was born on her 20th birthday.



June - age 22 (1941) with a new baby (Dianna June Chamberlin)
a few weeks old born 22 August 1941




Now, there's some cute kids!  (1944)  Jimmy Lee Chamberlin was
born 2 May 1944.  I insisted he be named Jimmy and Mom relented. 



June - age 28 (1947) We were all living with Mom's
mother and Grandpa Al at their chicken ranch in Baldwin
Park, California.  All the same folks, Mom and Dad,
Granny and Grandpa Al, Grandpa Thatcher
(shortly before he passed away) and the three of us children. 


 

Christmas (1950) in our new house in West Covina, California.
June age 31.  See the next picture for some explanation.



 

Christmas (1950).  The reason for the outfits was to go along with our
Welch pony 'Queenie.  the gifts included a saddle and new bridle.
Before that it was hours of bareback riding.  In front is our dog
'Donna' that we still had when Rosalyn and I married and
our cat 'Richard'.  Don't ask!

   

June - age 32 with family at Christmas 1951.
Jean had just moved the family to Santa Barbara,
California having taken a new job with Turco Cleaning
products and his route went as far north as San Luis Obispo.

  

June - age 33 (1952) on a family trip up to Uncle Carl Sutton's home in Downieville, California north of Sacramento in the High Sierras.  Left to right, back row, Marguerite Benecia Games (Jean's mother), June,  June's daughter (Dianna), and Uncle Carl's daughter (Helen).  Kneeling is Jean holding the fawn, son Jimmy and uncle Carl's son.  Uncle Carl is Marguerite's brother-in-law who was married to Frances Marion Games who died just a few months earlier.





(1952) Marguerite and Uncle Carl with one of two fawns he found injured along the road. 
This one had a badly broken leg.  Being the only doctor within 50 miles,
he amputated the left rear leg just below the knee.  That crazy dear grew up
and became a town pest bounding over fenches and generally causing trouble. 
It finally had to be taken to an animal reserve.  Marguerite was only married
to Grandpa Doc (Frank Chamberlin) for a few years.  She then married
Paul Stephen Scheiern.  She was a great lady.
We always knew her as Grandma Scheiern

   

June - age 33 (1952) The remainder of the trip
camping through the High Sierras. 


 

June - age 33 (1952) foolin around with Jean.  This is the way I remember my parents.  What ever trouble was brewing between them, it was never in front of us children.  Mom loved to play the piano and Dad and the family used to stand around it singing while she played.  He had a nice voice and could harmonize with almost any song he heard.  Mom and Dad were very demonstrative about the love they shared.  They openly flirted with each other, hugged and kissed often.  They danced anytime and anywhere music was playing.  Being young and young at heart, my friends loved them.  They were our local taxi everywhere we went.      



(1953) Mom and Dad at my Junior High School
graduation in Santa Barbara

 




 

(1953) Dad had always worked long hours and was not always home, and although Mom was our foundation and the stability in our family, Dad was my hero.  One more time, in 1953, things must have been really tight financially for we moved in with Granny and Grandpa Al in the little house, below.  It was the main house for their large chicken ranch in Santa Barbara. 

With Grandpa Al's help, Dad converted a three car parking shed into a nice little apartment for Granny and Grandpa Al to live while our family lived in the main house.  This is Dad age 34 working on the project.




(1953) This was the little main house that we shared on the ranch. 

 




(1953) This is the  finished apartment on the opposite side of the driveway where Granny and Grandpa Al lived.  Everything seemed to be going well until Turco offered Dad more money and a much larger territory ranging from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.  He would have to take the position immediately and in the the middle of my Sophmore year at Santa Barbara High School.  I was very active in the First Methodist Church and their youth group with many friends and a girl friend, to boot.  That was the most difficult decision I saw my folks make.  It was to be very hard on Mom, Dad, my grand parents, and the whole family.  That was the only time I ever saw my father cry.  It was decided that Dad would move to Los Angeles, find a house, and take the new position with Turco six months before the family could join him.  He found  a house in Sepulveda, California in the San Fernando Valley and Mom and the family traveled to and from there almost every weekend.  However, that was to be the beginning of the end for Mom and Dad's marraige.  He became involved with another women that he met in the Civil Air Patrol where he had become the Commandant of Cadets.  By the middle of my junior year at Van Nuys High School in 1957, they were divorced.  



June - age 40 (1959) met Joseph Anthony Vitellaro
at work.  They dated, fell in love,
and were married 29 May 1959



June - age 40 (1959) with Joe and her son
Jimmy Lee Chamberlin Christmas day



June - age 46 (1962) with three of Ron's children, David Alan,
Lauri Laraine, and Steven Curtis Chamberlin  



June - age 53 (1972) sharing birthdays with Ron 



June - age 57 (1976) with much of her family.  Husband  Joe, son Jimmy
holding his daughter Corinne, his wife Judy, Ron's daughter Tammy, Ron's
son Steven, Jim's daughter Ceci, Ron's son David behind June, Dianna's
daughter June, Ron's daughter Lauri, with Jim's sons Jason, Jack and James in front




June - age 58 (1977) with Joe in the bar Joe made in their home
in west Simi Valley, California 

  

June - age 58 (1977) dancing with Ron who
learned to dance with  her as a teen. 



June - age 60 (1979) with Joe

 



June - age 64 (1983) 



June - age 65 (1984) with Joe and their dog Chang
having just moved to Las Vegas, Nevada






June - age 65 (1984) with her son-in-law Matthew Anthony Pacillo,
Ron's wife Rosalyn, her daughter Dianna, her son Ron, and Joe



June - age 66 (1985) with her children Ron, Dianna and Jim

 




June - age 66 (1985) with Joe 




June - age 69 (1988) with Joe her grandson David's
graduation from medical school

   


 


June - age 70 (1989) with Joe

June - age 72 (1991) another birthday with Ron
who had just shaved off his beard.




June - age 73 (1992) with Joe, Ron's son Steve and his wife Carla
on the sofa next to her and her daughter Dianna and
son-in-law Matt sitting on the floor 

June - age 77 (1996) with Joe on a cruise
with Dianna and Matt



June - age 78 (1997) with Joe on another
cruise with Dianna and Matt



June age 78 (1997) with Joe, Dianna, Matt, Rosalyn, and Ron  



June - 79 (1998) Easter



June - age 79 (1998)



June - age 79 (1998) in her jacuzzi



June - age 80 (1999) her 80th birthday with Ron





June - age 80 (1999) riding around the block on the back of Ron's motorcycle



June - age 80 (1999) at her daughter-in-law
Rosalyn's 60th birthday party at Ron and
Rosalyn's home in Phelan, California with Joe,
and her niece Susan Pittman Perkins Gammill 

June - age 81 (2000) left to right her son Jim and his new wife Amelia,
June, Roaslyn and Ron, with Joe, Dianna and Matt in front



June - age 83 (2002) with grand-daughter Corinne (Jim's daughter)
at Jim's family reunion in September 2002.  Jim passed away in Feb 2003



June - age 85 (2004) with Joe



June - age 86 (2005) with Ron's son David and his family. Danny,
Benjamin, David, his wife Jenny, Sarah, Bekah, Sammy, Joe and Dianna



June - age 87 (2006)



June - age 88 (2007)



June - age 89 (2008)



June - age 90 (2009) with Dianna and Ron

June - age 91 (2010) on her 91st birthday



June - age 91 (2010) on her 91st birthday
with her granddaughter Lauri

 

June - age 91 (2010) having dinner with Joe at Dianna and Matt's
 on the 4th of July weekend.  This is the last picture I have of Mom
before her death in October 2010