June E. Harris

June Harris had a heart for nursing.

For 33 years, after graduating from Hagerstown Junior College’s nursing program, she worked in her field.

She started at Reeders Nursing Home, then got a job as a medical-surgical nurse at Shady Grove Hospital in Rockville, Md., not long after it opened in 1980.

June was the recipient of Shady Grove Hospital’s first Compassionate Care award this year, receiving the most nominations from her peers throughout the hospital, not just in her department, said Kevin Harris, her husband of 32 years.

Kevin also worked at Shady Grove Hospital, and the couple worked different shifts so one of them always was home when their two children got home from school.

June Lowery grew up on Mansfield Road in Keedysville. She attended Keedysville Elementary School, then Boonsboro middle and high schools, graduating in 1977.

Kevin was born in Hagerstown, but grew up in Rockville. He returned to Washington County about two years before he met June.

The summer of her high school graduation, Kevin was asked to host a party for someone who was going into the U.S. Marine Corps. The Marine was a friend of June’s, so she was on the guest list

June and Kevin met for the first time at the party and at the end of the evening, Kevin walked home with June and her youngest brother. They sat at June’s kitchen table talking, and Kevin told her he wanted to marry her.

“It was love at first sight, as you say,” Kevin said.

June was just starting nursing school and wanted to wait until she graduated to get married. They were wed in her home church, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Keedysville, on Aug. 18, 1979.

June wore a wedding gown crocheted by her mother, Shirley Lowery, who also was a nurse. Working on a tight budget, June and Shirley sewed the bridesmaid dresses and prepared all of the food for the reception.

“It was for cost-saving, but also the country family thing to do,” Kevin said.

The couple lived in Gaithersburg, Md., for a year, then returned to Washington County.

They lived in a farmhouse on Park Hall Road in Boonsboro, then purchased property from the farmer and built a house next to the farm. Kevin took a month off from work in October 1993 to get the house framed, and with the help of family and friends, it was completed in August 1995.

Over the years, the extended family relied on June for nursing advice and care, Kevin said.

“She was the nurse of the family, the big sister,” Kevin said. “Any time anybody got hurt, she was constantly getting phone calls. She just took care of everybody who needed help.”

Family was important to June. Daughter Sarah Harris said her mother was good at bringing both sides of the family together and that family was always welcome.

“No one knocks,” Sarah said. “We just walk into each other’s houses. Family always rotates in and out.”