June McAllister (Brazil) Kanz's Obituary
June McAllister (Brazil) (Neville) Kanz, of Tacoma passed away at 92 years of age on December 20, 2019. It was the exact day and nearly the same hour that her first love and father of her children, Emil Brazil Jr. passed away 39 years ago. June was a fifth generation Washingtonian. She was a direct descendent of the James McAllister family who traveled by covered wagon with the Simmons party and settled in Nisqually on Puget Sound in 1845. A graduate of Lincoln High School in Tacoma in 1945, she married Emil Brazil Jr. in 1946 when he returned from World War II after serving in the Army Air Corp. The accomplishments she was most proud of were her tap dancing performances around Tacoma and on the radio in the 1930’s, raising her two daughters, Nancy and Colleen, working as teacher’s aide and going on to receive her Senior Dance Aerobics Instructor Certificate. She taught dance aerobics for 30 years at various locations around Tacoma including Clover Park Senior Center and Jefferson Park for Tacoma Metro Parks. She formed the June Neville Dancers and choreographed their performances at the Tacoma Musical Playhouse and dozens of senior centers and nursing homes. She loved to travel and was always ready to go. She took many trips around the United States, Mexico, Spain, Germany and Ireland. One trip that topped them all was when June and her two daughters went to Scotland and stayed at the McAllister ancestral home. Besides her daughters and husbands, she loved animals of all sorts, including her cat Gus and towards the end of her life, her daughter’s Westies gave her great comfort. She is preceded in death by her husbands, Emil Brazil Jr., Glenn Neville, Jolen Kanz; her parents Dave and Gertrude Hibbard and her brother Nolan Hibbard. She is survived by her daughters (and best friends) Nancy Benson of Gig Harbor, Colleen Brazil of Snohomish, Son-in-Laws Gary Benson and Dave Grimes, two grand-children Sean and Jennifer, four great grand-children, her brother Jim Hibbard, Sister-in-Law, Jenny and many nieces and nephews in the Tacoma area and Portland.
A celebration of life service will be held at Mountain View Funeral Home in the Garden Chapel in Lakewood on Saturday, December 28th at 1pm. In lieu of flowers, the family would like to honor her memory by requesting donations to the Tacoma & Pierce County Humane Society. Remembrances may be shared at www.mountainviewtacoma.com.
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