June Jeannette Ragan

June Jeannette (Phillips) Ragan passed away peacefully on September 5, 2015 at the Kingswood Care Center in Kansas City, Missouri.  Jeannette, known as “Junie” to her friends and family, was born in Stover, Missouri on March 10, 1923 to Henry and Nan Todd Phillips.  She grew up in Stover, Wellington, and Sweet Springs, Missouri, graduating as valedictorian from Sweet Springs High School in 1939.  She received degrees from Warrensburg (Central Missouri State Teachers College, B.S. in education, 1942) and the University of Missouri at Kansas City (M.S. in education, 1968).  After graduating from Warrensburg, she taught high school for one year in Higginsville, Missouri.  She then accepted a position with TWA in Kansas City.  She was at TWA for 18 years in various positions:  first as a secretary, then flight attendant, and ultimately as the Supervisor of Flight Attendants in Kansas City.  In 1960 she married John (Jack) Gilbert Ragan and started a family, residing in Overland Park, Kansas, and Sunnyvale, California.  After Jack’s sudden passing in 1965, she returned to Kansas City.  After completing her Master’s degree at UMKC, she returned to her first career of teaching, and taught third grade at Katherine Carpenter Elementary school in the Shawnee Mission District from 1968 to 1986.  After retirement, she began what she referred to as her “third career” as a volunteer at a variety of charitable organizations through her church, Country Club United Methodist, including Chillicothe PATCH (Prisoners and Their Children), tutoring at Bryant Elementary, and adult literacy.  She is survived by her son (John Anthony Ragan of Gales Ferry, Connecticut) and daughter and son-in-law (Margaret Ragan and husband, Byron Sawyer, of Kansas City), a nephew and two nieces (Todd Wood of Raytown, Missouri, Sue Ann (“Tudi”) Wood Owens of Dallas, Texas, and Linda Wood Heinze of Sterling, Virginia), and countless friends from her many years at 78th Terrace in Prairie Village, Oak Hall, and Kingswood.  A visitation will be held at Johnson County Memorial Gardens at 112th and Metcalf on Thursday, September 10th from 5-7 pm.  Funeral services will be held at Country Club United Methodist Church, 400 W. 57th Street, Kansas City, MO, 64113 on Friday, September 11 at 3:00 pm.  In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in honor of Jeannette Ragan to Country Club United Methodist Church.

---