Ima June Boren

Ima June Boren

Our Butterfly has Flown

Ima June Boren, "Junebug", age 92, a resident of Madisonville, Tennessee, passed away on Thursday, August 1, 2024. She was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, Thomas Phillip Boren. She is survived by her children, Linda Fay Moberly of Madisonville, TN, Larry Dean Boren of Plano, TX, Mary Lou Endsley of Mesquite, NV, and David Lee Boren of Etowah, TN; grandchildren , Adam Dwayne Endsley, Travis Allen Endsley, Ronald D. Bryant, Randy D. Bryant and Robert W. White; great-grandchildren, Brendan Endsley, Hunter Allen Endsley, Mason Ryan Endsley, Landon Michael Endsley, Easton Eldon Endsley, Thomas D. Bryant, Bruce L. Bryant, Larry "P.J." Grantland, Whisper D. Wood, and Jarrett Green.

Ima June is survived by her sisters, Jeanette McDonald of Gainsboro, TN and Carolyn Joy Page of Sun City, AZ and other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Oma Watts and Jossie Paddock Watts; brothers, Billa Joe Watts, Charles Oma Watts, Don Major Watts, Glen Ray Watts, Harry Truman Watts and James Clifford Watts; and a sister, Helen Louise Bryant.

Ima June was born in 1931 in Jefferson, Oklahoma to a sharecropper family. During 1947, while working in the carrot sheds of Grants, New Mexico she met and then married the man she said mended her own "broken road". The couple moved to San Rafael, New Mexico and lived in their home in the "Little West Virginia" part of the village until the death of Thomas in 2011.

Although nicknamed "Junebug", she was more of a butterfly with a magic wand of colors. She decorated her home with any color available and applied the same process to her quilts. The house was too small to contain all the colors of the wand and so her yard became an open-air studio displaying colors through flowers that offset the barren landscape. She wove colors into the fence and placed caricatures over the garage door. Flowers surrounded her garden bathing her in color as she diligently worked the soil, watered it and then harvested its bounty. And at the right time of the year the garden shared in the lilac colors of a huge Russian Sage placed in the midst of the produce plants.

Her smile brought a smile to the faces of others and each person she met knew that they were important to her. Although she knew nothing about the art of photography, she took picture after picture recording her own life as well as others.

Although all of the above are wonderful descriptions, the most important thing about her was her belief in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. He saw her through both good and bad times and taught her to take little of nothing and make it into something meaningful. I'm sure that when she sees her Savior, he will say, ''Well done thou good and faithful servant".

Our family's "Butterfly" has now flown away but is alive in our hearts because of the many memories she created. There is no need to have sorrow, for we shall all see her again.

The family will receive friends on Monday, August 5, 2024, at the Island Creek Baptist Church in Madisonville, Tennessee from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. with the funeral service to follow at 7:00 p.m., with Rev. Lewis Jones officiating. Interment will be conducted at a later date in the Grants Memorial Park Cemetery in Grants, New Mexico. Kyker Funeral Homes, Sweetwater, in charge of arrangements. www.kykerfuneralhomes.com