June Williams Thornton MacDonald

JUNE WILLIAMS THORNTON MacDONALD

While gently held in the ever loving arms of Charles Paul MacDonald III, her devoted husband of 58 years, June Williams Thornton MacDonald joined her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the earliest morning hour of Thursday, October 17, 2024 at home in Clifton, Virginia.

Armoring themselves with such deep and abiding love for one another and especially for their God, with steadfast tenacity the couple fought June’s cancer, first waging an all-out war against a rare form of adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2008, and next boldly confronting an unsparing squamous cell carcinoma in late 2023. The drastic, physically altering surgery and excruciating treatments she endured to not only eliminate her cancers, but also to preserve some semblance of a “normal” life ahead, caused so many of her years to be fraught with unspeakable pain, constant frustration, and the chaos of uncertainty.

June, however, held fast to the joy of living and serving, and as her parents and faith had taught her, she humbly remained ever mindful of the needs of others. She never stopped softly speaking words of caring and comfort both written and in person, sending flowers to the sick, or delivering food to the bereaved. She effortlessly lavished her friends and family with the most gracious holiday and birthday gatherings, and resolved to be the glue that held her family together until the end.

June was born on Saturday, June 19, 1943 in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia. She was the eldest daughter of the late Wilfred Harkness Thornton and the late June Nell Word Williams, and the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Royal Grandin Williams, and the late Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Harkness Thornton. She was President of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority at Duke University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in History with a Music minor in 1965. She married Charles Paul MacDonald III in Macon, Georgia on July 23, 1966 and dedicated her life to him, and to being an exemplary Army wife and an outstanding mother to their two children, Charles Paul MacDonald IV (Leigh Michelle Tyler) of Oakton, Virginia, and Margaret Ann Gadsden MacDonald Carter (Michael Stewart Carter, Sr.) of Lancaster, PA.

She was a consummate volunteer and was deeply involved in her children’s lives, playing the piano and teaching in Sunday school, sewing costumes, and serving in the classroom. She was a 50+ Sustainer Member of the Junior Leagues of Macon and Atlanta, Georgia, respectively. As a seasoned member of Pohick Episcopal Church, June was a longtime member of its Altar Guild, and served 10 years as a Lay Chaplain within its “Community of Hope.”

She is survived by her husband; her two children; a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law whom she so dearly loved as her own; her two grandchildren, Charles Paul MacDonald V and Michael Stewart Carter, Jr.; and her adoring sister Ann Word Thornton and her husband Gerald Jones Train of Macon, Georgia.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 23, 2024 at Pohick Episcopal Church in Lorton, Virginia, with a private burial for family to follow at Christ Church Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia. Flowers may be received at the church in time for the memorial service, or gifts in June’s memory may be made to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, Pohick Episcopal Church, or a charity of choice.