Anne June (Gordon) McWatt, Age 94, a resident of Allegria Village in Dearborn, and former resident of Grosse Pointe and Macomb County, died December 21, 2022. June was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada on April 1, 1928, the only child of George and Nan (Grant) Gordon. June's parents were immigrants from Scotland. After a difficult birth, George sent his wife and daughter to Scotland, not sure that they would survive. After loving care on the boat and from the Grannies in Scotland, Nan and June returned to North America. The family moved to Detroit, but due to the challenges of the Great Depression, June and her mother returned to Scotland twice before her 7 ^th birthday. June graduated from Denby High School in 1945 and completed her Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts at Wayne State University in 1950. She met her husband, James Duthie McWatt, while teaching Sunday School at Calvin Presbyterian Church. They married September 1, 1950. Jim began teaching in Detroit and they began their family. As a mom in the 1950s and 1960s, June was a volunteer in her children's schools. As a hint to her future pursuits, her desk blotter would be covered with doodles of faces if she had been making phone calls for the PTA! June expressed her creativity by sewing clothes for herself and her children. June returned to Wayne State to earn a teaching degree, but while she was student teaching, she learned that high school history positions weren't available, so she redirected her path to Library Science. She was hired as the Librarian at Kelly Junior High in East Detroit in 1968 and completed her Master of Science in Library Science in 1970. In 1977 she became the Film Librarian at the Macomb Intermediate School District and oversaw the distribution of media to the county's teachers for 16 years. She earned her PhD in Educational Instructional Technology in 1983. A lifelong learner, June began taking art classes after finishing her PhD. She enjoyed watercolors and pastels, landscapes and still life, but her favorite was portraits done in pastels. June and Jim enjoyed traveling. They visited family in Scotland, England, Canada, and New Zealand, learned about Christianity in the USSR, and took multiple cruises, including through the Panama Canal. June was predeceased by her husband James Duthie McWatt. She is survived by her loving children, Catherine (Bruce Robb), Lorna (Craig Tarbeck), Jerilyn (J. John) Jurewicz, and Gordon (Mary); her 6 cherished grandchildren, Jillian (Bradley) Morgan, Gordon and Jack Tarbeck, Nichole (Ray) Nowicki, and James and Joseph (Benjamin Herrington) McWatt; and 2 dear great-grandchildren, Max and Ray Nowicki. She is also survived by her late husband's sister-in-law, Elaine McWatt, numerous nieces and nephews, and her cousins, including Dorothy Martin (the late John) Honhart and Ian (Evelyn) Gordon. In order to allow her outstate family and friends to attend, her memorial service will be held Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, 16 Lakeshore Drive, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI 48236. Donations may be made in June's name to Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, 25650 Kelly Road, Roseville, MI 48066 or to Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. Please share a memory with the family at http://howepeterson.com

In the last years of June's professional life, she enrolled in art classes. Both the friendship of fellow artists and their combined creativity gave her great joy. As June approached retirement, she had already settled into a new career for herself of creating, selling and gifting artwork.  As she worked on her currently commissioned artwork, she would have two to four more on her wait list for her promised completion date of up to 6 months later.  Her clientele were willing to wait.  Her favorite medium was pastels, which is chalk, and many of these pictures in the photo gallery are from her work with pastels.