DATE: Monday, August 18, 1997               TAG: 9708180007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: LEXINGTON                         LENGTH:   46 lines

JUNE F. CUNNINGHAM

June Elizabeth Floyd Cunningham died Saturday, Aug. 16, 1997, at Augusta Medical Center, Fishersville, Va., after a lengthy and valiant battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

Mrs. Cunningham retired as director of the Virginia Military Institute Museum in 1989, where she had initiated many procedures and storage methods for the display and perpetual care of the Museum's valuable artifacts. Among her many other accomplishments, she developed the Institute's very valuable gun collection. She was held in very high esteem by co-workers, alumni and superiors.

She was born in Buena Vista, graduated from Parry McCluer High School and Southern Seminary & Junior Women's College. She was involved in a wide variety of volunteer efforts throughout the years her children were in school. She was also a very progressive person who was involved in civil rights in the 1960s. She played folk music for many years and was an artist whose works could be seen in the schools where her children were students.

Mrs. Cunningham was the oldest daughter of the late Robert William (Doley) and Winnie Rogers Floyd of Buena Vista and married George Edwin Cunningham in 1945. She is survived by her husband of 51 years; daughters, Elizabeth Page Cunningham (Worley) and Martha Cunningham Keith, both of Hampton, and JoAnn C. Tigert of Staunton; two sons, George Edwin Jr. and William Reid Cunningham of Rockbridge County; daughters-in-law, Theresa and Michelle Cunningham of Rockbridge; grandchildren, Jennifer Worley Humphrey of Charlottesville, Emily and Robbie Keith of Hampton, Eric Gibson and Kathleen Tigert of Staunton and Danielle, William and Thomas Cunningham of Rockbridge County; great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Michaela Humphrey and grandson-in-law, William of Charlottesville. She is also survived by a sister, Margie F. McKee and brother, Donald W. Floyd and sisters-in-law, Elsie D. Floyd and Nitza Floyd of Buena Vista; and maternal uncle, Dick and Edith Rogers of Buena Vista. She was preceded in death by her beloved brother, Curtis W. ``Buddy'' Floyd, past director of personnel at VMI.

There will be a memorial service at Buena Vista Presbyterian Church on Tuesday at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in honor of June Cunningham be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 20 Koger Center, Suite 233, Norfolk, Va. 23502, or the VMI Scholarship Fund. The Rev. Rebecca M. Glass will officiate the memorial service and the family will receive visitors at Bolling Grose & Lotts Funeral Home between 7 and 9 p.m. today. KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY

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