June Muller Vaughn

June Muller Vaughn, June 18th, 1920 – February 12th, 2015

June was born on June 18,1920, in Lacon Illinois to Ernest and Olive Butts. She was raised during the depression, and remembers her family growing their own vegetables, eating lots of potatoes, and her mother making mashed bean sandwiches to take to school for lunch.

June married Theodore Schultz in 1937, and had 4 children, Judy, Dennis, Sharon and Larry. During WWII, June became a skilled welder, welding kingpin housings on Pullman train cars. Her welds were so good, she was promoted to inspector.

Her marriage to Ted ended, and June moved to California, where she worked at the Los Gatos Times in 1946 pouring hot metal into a plate they used on the press, and by her coworkers, was called a jack-of-all-trades.

June also worked in a diner in Los Gatos where she met Carl Muller, whom she married in 1950. Carl was a bus driver for Peerless Bus lines when they met, but then got a job in a lumber yard in San Mateo, where he learned the lumber business.

On January 1st 1956, Carl, June and baby daughter Carla, moved to Oakhurst where Carl and his brother-in-law James McNally started Oakhurst Lumber Company (currently Yosemite Lumber). Carl later went on to open up Oakhurst Chainsaw and Equipment Rentals. June did the books for the business, and would often go to Fresno for supplies. Carla remembers her mom being worried about traveling to Fresno if the car was having any problems, because it you broke down, a car may not come by for 3-4 hours, and you’d be stranded. June’s mom had a game of counting how many cars they would pass on a trip to Fresno, and if you passed 10, that was a lot of traffic! That’s when Oakhurst consisted of the Midway Market, with the Post Office being on one wall of the store, the Flying A gas station, the Holiday Village, the French Poodle bar and restaurant and couple of real estate offices.

June was one of the founding members of Mountain Christian Center, which met in her home at the very beginning. Carla remembers having the Easter Sunrise services on her grandparent’s back patio, and her grandmother Olive, making breakfast for every one after the service. Carl and June were part of several service organizations, and were also a big part of getting the Oakhurst Community Center built.

In 1971 Carl passed away, and Gil Whitehead , the owner of Midway Market, offered June a job as a checker, and she worked there for 6 years. While working at the store she met Lloyd Vaughn, who was a salesman, and had sold the talking bear to Shollenbarger’s Real Estate Office (where it still is today). She and Lloyd got married, and in 1977 June retired from Midway Market to travel with Lloyd, who was then selling truck liners for the beds of Datsun trucks. After several years of traveling, they returned home, and June got a job at Star Pharmacy, and worked as a pharmacy tech through 3 different owners.

June was a avid reader, gardener, and a great cook. She would often in the later years, check out cookbooks from the library just to read them. She loved her 5 children, 9 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and 6 great-great-grandchildren. She loved her God, her church, and getting to live in Oakhurst for 59 years.