Helen June Innis' Obituary
Helen “June” Enos Innis passed away Sunday, June 1, 2025, at 88 years of age.
Funeral service will be held for June at 1:00 PM on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, at Graceland/Fairlawn Funeral Home. Visitation will begin an hour before the service at 12:00 PM.
She was born on June 26, 1936, in Granite City, Madison County, IL. She was a daughter of the late Dewey Enos and Helen Burle Enos.
June attended Granite City Schools and Illinois State Normal Teacher’s College (later renamed Illinois State University in Normal), where she earned Bachelor’s Degrees in Speech/Language Pathology as well as in Elementary Education. Later, she received her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Illinois. While in college, she was voted “Homecoming Queen” for the 1955 school year and was also a contestant in the “Miss Illinois Pageant”.
She enjoyed being a speech teacher and working with children, and always looked forward to socializing and visiting with her many friends and colleagues. June served on the Illinois State Alumni Homecoming Committee, Board of Directors of the Macon County School Employee Credit Union and was a member of the educational organizations DEA, IEA, and NEA during her teaching years.
Travel was one of June’s many interests in life. She always took great pleasure in her trips to see her sons Brian & Jeff to spend time with their families. She also enjoyed traveling abroad, helping to organize tours to Europe with her friends at Ticket-n-Trips Travel Agency. In 2004, she studied the Italian language in Florence, Italy at the “Michelangelo Institute” and in 2005, studied at “Institute Lingual” in Verona, Italy. Additionally, she made many trips to Ireland and also enjoyed sailing on “Irish Cruises”, often meeting up with the same people every year from other states. She was also quite proud of having journeyed to New York with her young family in 1963 to become a contestant on the “Price is Right”, where she won a bedroom set that she kept until recently.
In a 1997 letter June left to her sons Jeff & Brian in case something should befall her she wrote, “I must tell you that the best and proudest thing that I have ever done was to be a “Mom” to both of you. I have been blessed with the richness of family love”.
She is survived by her oldest son Brian Innis and wife Lisa of Waterloo, IL; the four grandchildren she considered her greatest blessings: Keenan Innis and wife Parker, Shannon Innis Kelly and husband Sam, Hannah Innis, and Emma Innis; and her most recent blessing, one great grandchild, Keenan & Parker’s daughter, June Snow Innis.
In addition to her parents, June is preceded in death by her youngest son, Jeffery David “Jeff” Innis; as well as older brothers Robert “Bob” Jansen and William “Bill” Jansen.
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