June Burns, 76; nurse was true to tradition

JUNE BURNS

June Burns was unusually quiet as she sat in a doctor's office at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute three weeks ago. She let her daughter tell the doctor about the trip to Australia Mrs. Burns and a friend had planned because, although she had made a career of helping other people, Mrs. Burns was shy about receiving help.

The doctor told the Boston native what she already knew: She was too sick to travel. A smile crept into the corners of her mouth as, perched in her chair in matching periwinkle pants and blouse, Mrs. Burns rested her chin in her palm, peered at the doctor, and said, "How about Fiji?"

June C. (Rahilly) Burns of Wollaston died of cancer Sunday at Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester, where she had ended her 44-year nursing career in 1999. She was 76.

"She always found the humor in something, no matter how awful it was, but never at the expense of anyone," said Mrs. Burns's daughter, Mariellen of Boston.

Mrs. Burns's sense of humor was one of many qualities that stood out in this woman who dedicated her life to comforting the ill. Her first job as a nurse was at Children's Hospital in Boston after she graduated in 1955 from St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing in Worcester. She also worked at Boston Medical Center and Milton Hospital.

When she was in her 20s, Mrs. Burns and a friend hopped in her green Plymouth and drove to Florida on a whim, said her daughter. They ended up staying for months, with Mrs. Burns working at Saint Francis Hospital in Miami.

For Mrs. Burns, nursing was a privilege she was proud of but did not boast about.

A patient is "putting so much in their hands," her daughter said of a a nurse's role. "She looked at it as an honor and something she had to prove she was deserving of every time she went to work."

Mrs. Burns went to work nights at either 7 or 11, and had four children to care for during the day. Her husband, Robert, a World War II Navy veteran, worked for Harvard University. They met at a party on White Horse Beach in Plymouth and married a year later, in 1959.

The nurses at the last hospital at which Mrs. Burns worked, Caritas Carney, saw her as a mother figure who kept them focused on their work, said Mary Conti, who began her nursing career at the hospital in 1978.

"June never forgot that the patient was the center of what we were doing," said Conti, who worked closely with Mrs. Burns in the critical care unit.

Though she did not often speak of the patients she helped, her daughter said that among her mother's keepsakes were dozens of cards and letters from them, some addressed to "Auntie June."

A modern woman, Mrs. Burns balanced family and career and traveled extensively. But as the world changed, she did not.

When the nurses at Caritas Carney abandoned the traditional white uniform for scrubs in the 1980s, Mrs. Burns did not conform. Reluctantly, she shelved the pin she had earned by graduating from St. Vincent, and the white hat that had been perched atop her fire-red hair for so many years, but she continued to wear her white skirt and stockings until she retired.

"She preserved everything," right down to her kitchen floor, a yellow and orange pattern that is still as bright as it was when she installed it in the 1970s, Mari- ellen said. "She's taken such good care of it, it hasn't worn out."

At times, it seemed Mrs. Burns was incapable of wearing out. "I couldn't always keep up with June, I really couldn't," said Peggy Calloe of Sharon, who began working at Children's Hospital the same year as Mrs. Burns.

Calloe and Mrs. Burns traveled together to California, Hawaii, the Panama Canal, and most recently, China.Their trip to Australia was to be their last major trip together, Calloe said.

In addition to her daughter and husband, Mrs. Burns leaves three sons, Brian of Wollaston, Robert Jr. of Annandale, Va., and Army Colonel Stephen Burns, of Springfield, Va.; and four grandchildren.

Services will be held tomorrow at St. Ann Parish in Wollaston. Burial will be in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.