Junean E. Witham Grady, a resident of Port St. Lucie, Florida, and long-time resident of Cedar Falls, passed from this life to the next on February 11, 2010, at the Cedar Valley Hospice Home in Waterloo, after a long and courageous battle with multiple myeloma.
Junean was born on April 23,1944, in Altus, Oklahoma, the eldest child of Amil Gene and June (Newell) Goschke. She grew up in Wellman, Iowa, graduating from Mid Prairie High School in 1962. She earned a B. A. degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 1966 and her M. A. in 1997. Junean married Dick Witham in Wellman on December 23,1966, and they divorced after twenty-eight years of marriage. She married her high school sweetheart, Tim Grady, on October 24, 2001, in Richmond, Iowa.
Junean taught biology at Fort Dodge and Cedar Falls High Schools, worked as a supervisor of students for UNI's Camp Adventure, was a Doncaster wardrobe consultant, and a researcher at ME & V. She was also a very active volunteer leader in the Cedar Valley and in Iowa. She was very involved in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Junior League, serving as president as well as being a recipient of the Golden Rose Award.
Junean was committed to UNI, serving on the Alumni Board of Directors, the Athletic Policy Board and Athletic Advisory Board, the Panther Scholarship Fund, and the founding committee for the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. She was also a board member for Iowa's Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1996, was a founding member of Silos and Smokestacks, and worked on the state level to prevent adolescent substance abuse. Junean served on many boards, including the YWCA, the patient care review board for Harmony House, and the Transitional Living Center Committee for brain-injured.
Junean loved to read, travel, discuss politics and current events, follow sports (especially UNI athletics), cook, and entertain. Above all, she loved to spend quality time with her family and many good friends.
Junean was preceded in death by her father. She is survived by her husband, of Port St. Lucie and Dike; two sons, Jason (Tara) and Jeremy (Kellie) Witham, both of Cedar Falls; her mother of Wellman, two stepchildren, Brian Grady of South Sudan, Africa, and Sara Grady of Kansas City; four grandchildren, Jacob; Whitney, and Savannah Witham and Julian Rivera of Cedar Falls; one brother, Doug (Ann) Goschke, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, two sisters, Pam Goschke (Tim Meyer) of Amana and Sue (Gary) Gravert of Albia; several nieces and nephews; and many friends.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday, February 15, 2010; at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls. Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. today at Dahl-Van Hove-Schoof Funeral Home in Cedar Falls; with a special time of sharing at 5:30 p.m. Memorials may go to Camp Adventure, in care of UNI Foundation, or Cedar Valley Hospice.
Copyright Waterloo Courier, February 14, 2010, page B6.