The Fischer family bids a loving farewell to June Fischer of Colorado Springs, who died on December 14, 2016.

June Avonne Graybiel was born on June 17, 1922, in Neligh, Nebraska. She was the youngest of four children of Inez and Alvin E. Graybiel.

June trod local stages as a girl, singing in the high school choir, acting in school plays and headlining a little song and dance troupe as "Ginger."

She graduated from Neligh High School in 1939 and worked for two years as the school secretary to save money for college. Then she took a trip to California –- to visit her sister Ardis but also to see Dick Fischer, who was a Neligh High teacher and coach before he joined the Army Air Corps. She stayed on in California, working as a secretary at Cal Tech, attending UCLA and singing in a women's choral group.

June and Dick were engaged before he shipped overseas to serve in World War II. They married upon his return, on Jan. 17, 1946, at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Westwood Village, California.
Back home in Neligh, they lived "on the stage," as June used to joke. It was an apartment built in the old city auditorium where the stage had been. Their first three children were born during that time.

Dick re-upped in the Air Force and off they went – to Ames, Iowa, where their fourth child was born, to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and finally to the Air Force Academy in 1963.

June was a soprano in a choral group at the Academy called The Skylarks. She excelled in home decorating, entertaining and growing an impressive flower garden.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard O. Fischer; parents; and siblings, Gerald Graybiel of Bella Vista, Ark., Ardis Holbrook of Ashland, Ky. and Velma Rose of Grand Island, Neb.

She is survived by her children and their spouses: Steve and Nancy Fischer of Broomfield, Colo., Kathleen Rutledge and Ted Kooser of Garland, Neb., Julie Fischer and Michael Ward of Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan and Duane Demolli of Colorado Springs; grandsons, Daniel Fischer of Colorado Springs, Jackson Fischer-Ward of Brooklyn, N.Y., Scott Demolli of Lincoln, Neb., and Luke Demolli of Fort Collins, Colo.; stepgrandson, Jeff Kooser of Pella, Iowa; niece Marjorie Anne Dozier of Overland Park, Kan.; and nephews, Bill Rose of Lincoln, Neb., Dick Boyer of Valentine, Neb., and Bill Boyer of Utah.

Memorial service: 1 p.m. Dec. 22, First Presbyterian Church, 219 E. Bijou. No Flowers. Graveside service: 10 a.m. Dec. 30, Mount Hope Cemetery, Valentine, Neb. Memorials to the Richard O. and June A. Fischer Scholarship Fund, University of Nebraska Foundation, 1010 Lincoln Mall #300, Lincoln NE 68508.

Special thanks to those dedicated Home Instead caregivers who helped June stay in her home in recent years.