To the Editor:

I was disappointed in the coverage of Altamont’s Memorial Day parade. There was a photo of Porter Bidleman as Grand Marshall but no photo of him with June McNiven who was riding with him in the car.

Mrs. McNiven is a 99-year-old World War II veteran. Lt. June Brown (McNiven) served active duty in the South Pacific, an Army nurse island-hopping as our troops moved in.

Cute-kid photos are fine but this day should have been about veterans. I can only think that you all are too young to know.

An oldster myself, and a lifelong resident of Altamont, I remember.

Let me tell you the story. Mrs. McNiven grew up in Canandaigua in a children’s home, a Depression Era necessity. When a teenager, June went to live with a private family as their “hired girl.” After graduating from high school she went into nurses training.

I believe June was at John Hopkins when the war began. When war was declared, June joined the Army Nurse Corps. She was assigned to the South Pacific.

On the troop ship crossing the Pacific she met an Army Air Force pilot also heading in that direction, Captain Roy McNiven. Roy flew transports, troops, and supplies as the war moved from island to island.

A romance blossomed. When June was assigned to an evacuation hospital near Sydney, Australia, Roy got leave and they were married there.

Later she remembers sharing a tent with her new husband, his gun under the pillow, they were so close to enemy lines.

With the war over, and with a young family, Roy was working as a salesman for Hallmark Cards and they were living in Massachusetts. He was transferred to the Albany area.

June contacted her old friend and nursing-school classmate, Dorthea Waters.

Dottie and Carl were living in Altamont and found them a place here in the village. (Carl, by the way, was an Army test pilot during the war.)

Moving here in the 1950s, June and Roy brought their six children up in Altamont. Many readers may remember June as the junior high school nurse here in Guilderland (before they switched to the middle school arrangement). Two sons still reside in the area and June stays with them when not at the summer home she and Roy purchased in Ogunquit, Maine.

P.S. My own husband, Harry L. DuBrin served under General George Patton from Africa, through Italy and into Germany. After the war, Harry joined the active reserve, graduated from the War College, served in the Pentagon and finally as head of civilian defense for the state of New York before retiring, after 37 years service, as a full “bird” Colonel.

Some will remember Carl served as a Guilderland Town Supervisor and Dottie as the Altamont Elementary School nurse.

All of us were great friends with Port and Sally bidleman.

Carol DuBrin

Altamont

Editor’s note: We did print a picture in last week’s paper of June McNiven, 99, being honored at the Memorial Day celebration. It ran in the Senior News on page 20. We’re running another picture of her this week to go with Carol DuBrin’s wonderful rendition of June McNiven’s life story.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer