June’s home was always filled with plants and flowers, music, curiosity, hospitality, kindness, and love. She was born June Adrienne Kuzara in Sheridan, Wyoming. Although she moved from Wyoming in her early 20’s, Wyoming never left her; as she wrote, “maybe it’s the memories of clear trout streams singing; or aspen glowing golden in the fall; or the whispering pines of the Big Horns.”
June married her high school sweetheart, Ed Harper. But soon found herself a war widow and pregnant. Her parents helped to raise her son, Ed, while she started her undergraduate studies at University of Wyoming.
June met Carl Hess in Frontier, Wyoming, while he was home from college. He worked that summer for June’s stepdad, who worked for Carl’s stepdad at the Kemmerer Coal Co. They married in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where Carl was a newly commissioned officer in the US Army. They formed a family of three which expanded in 1957 with the birth of Ernie, while Carl was stationed in Germany, and then again in 1959 with the birth of Kathy, back stateside.
While raising her three children she immersed herself in volunteering in Springfield, Virginia, where they settled in 1966. In addition to scouting, coaching, and PTA-ing, some of her most rewarding experiences were volunteering with the church, a Red Cross hotline, and a rape crisis center.
She encouraged her children to pursue their varied interests, from sports, to music, to student government, to community service. And she tolerated her childrens interest in pets: guppies, hamsters, snakes, and dogs.

June raised her family based on strong Christian values. About the importance of music in ministry, mission work and social justice. A love of nature was always forefront in planning family outings, and she always encouraged her children to lead active and outdoor lives. Picnics, camping, and walks were always important elements of every family outing.

Once her youngest child was in middle school, June turned her attention to employment outside of the home. She was the foreign marketing coordinator for a clinical laboratory manufacturing firm, development aide for a private school, and a site manager for a Fairfax County retirement community.
Upon retirement, June went back to school, finishing up the undergraduate studies she had started nearly 50 years prior. She earned her degree from Marymount University, meeting her goal of finishing college before her oldest grandchild; she beat him by one month.
Music was a lifetime passion. She wrote that the most fun she’s ever had was singing with the interfaith, multi-racial gospel choir, Mosaic Harmony. This choir performs throughout the DC metropolitan area. For many years, after moving to Winchester, Virginia, June, and Carl continued to drive into DC for rehearsals and performances. June also was a faithful alto in the church choir at Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield and First Presbyterian Church in Winchester.
Always one to be busy, after moving to the Westminister-Canterbury retirement community in Winchester, in 2008, she dove headfirst into her new community. The wildflower garden was a particular passion of hers; June spent countless hours on her knees pulling invasive plants and adding new plantings that will long grace the garden with their beauty. She enjoyed singing with the choristers; she and Carl were known for the duets they performed together. June and Carl’s annual Christmas breakfast was a well-loved tradition for many years, interrupted by the pandemic.
June grew to love Winchester. She wrote “the Shenandoah Valley may be in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains and not the Big Horns, but it makes me feel comfortable, as though I’ve come home.”
June found life meaning in her family. She is survived by her husband, Carl Hess, of Winchester, Virginia, son Ed Hess and his wife Janet of Austin, Texas, son Ernie Hess and his wife Carol of Ripon, California, daughter Kathy Hess and her husband Charles Stewart of Cambridge, Massachusetts, her niece Lisa Kuzara of Mesa, Arizona, grandchildren and grandchildren spouses Sarah, Matt, Emily, Stephen, Nathan, Elaine, Marie, Mitch, Paul, and Cameron, and great grandchildren Avery, Hannah, Aubrey, Reese, Elijah, Johanna, Abigail, Esther, Genevieve, and Callen.
Her children will distribute their mother’s ashes amidst the trees growing tall above Prune Creek in the Big Horns, as she requested.

A memorial service will be Saturday, April 6. 2024 at 11am at Westminster Canterbury.
Memorial contributions may be made in memory of June to Mosaic Harmony at https://mosaicharmony.org/donate/ or by mail to Mosaic Harmony Choir, 2961A Hunter Mill Road #611, Oakton, VA 22124