June Died

Even if you weren’t around then, you know about the television show “Leave It To Beaver.” It was one of those shows featuring the ideal but unrealistic American family of the late 1950s/early 60s era. June Cleaver was the ‘perfect’ housewife mom. Barbara Billingsly, the actress who played June, died today, just short of her 95th birthday.

My family actually was as boring as the Cleavers. We were the perfect nuclear family, with parents who never divorced and two lovely children; except in my case is was one boy and one girl, not two boys like in the show. Like June, my Mom was a housewife with good fashion sense but unlike June, my Mom did not ever dress up around the house. Dad, like Ward Cleaver, was wise, all-knowing and easy-going. He did wear a suit and tie to work every day, but unlike Ward, my Dad ditched the suit and donned khaki work clothes within seconds of getting home every day.



Billingsly acted in dozens of TV shows and movies but she was and still is best known for her role as June Cleaver. Her second-most notable role was in the 1980 movie “Airplane,” as the passenger who spoke Jive.