Barry CourterThe morning after attending a memorial service for co-worker Lin Parker, I opened my paper to see that my former boss, June Cooper Hatcher, had died.
My first thoughts were, "Uncle. Enough. I give. No more death. Please." A bit later I thought how lucky I was to have known and worked so closely with both of them.
Lin was an artist through-and-through. Pretty much everything she did, whether intentionally or not, was done with an artist's soul. She made things from whatever she had, which made her the only person I know who delighted in being given a bag of rusty nails for her birthday.
Walking to lunch one day, I noticed she was scouring the ground. I asked if she needed some change to buy something to eat. She laughed, and then laughed again when she started to say what she was looking for.
"I'm looking for the rusted pieces that fall off the brushes on the street sweepers."
They became part of her art pieces. So did feathers, pine cones, cat hair and even gallstones. It made for a somewhat awkward moment at the doctor, but they now reside inside a glass dome display case along with other natural, found objects like moss, twigs and feathers. It's quite lovely and quite a conversation piece.
Lin was also known for her jewelry, including a raccoon penis she wore on a piece of leather around her neck.
June was the Entertainment Editor at the News-Free Press. As my boss, she was nothing but good to me. She loved going on press junkets for movie premieres and I think she liked sending me, when she couldn't go, just as much. She knew how much I would both enjoy and learn from them.
If you've ever seen the movie "Notting Hill," the scenes where Hugh Grant pretends to be a writer from "Horse & Hound" magazine represents these events fairly accurately.
When not talking about her family, which was most of the time, June talked about her experiences on the job at the paper, which she had proudly done since 1972. She talked about working through the strike years and about being a woman in a male-dominated industry.
My favorite June moment came the Monday after she attended the junket for "Something About Mary." In her 60s at the time, she said it was the funniest movie she'd seen in a long time.
I pressed for details and finally she said, "I'll tell you one, but I can't look at you while I do it."
She turned her chair around out of modesty and proceeded to tell me about the now-famous "hair gel" scene between giggles.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.