June Ripatti, 88

June Ripatti, 88, passed away at her home in Copeland, Idaho, on Dec. 30, 2013.

Funeral services will be held for June Ripatti at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014, at the Bonners Ferry Funeral Home, followed by a graveside service at the Copeland Cemetery.

Friends, family, and neighbors are invited to share a potluck meal in celebration of June’s life at the Copeland Hall following the graveside service.

June was born in Inman, Virginia, to Tom Collins and Sally Ann (Rutherford) Collins on Dec. 7, 1925. She was raised as a “coal miner’s daughter” in a large (10 children) musically inclined family in the hills around Inman.

After working for a short time in a munitions factory during World War II, she rode the bus with her sister, Bonnie Karnes, to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, in 1943.

June met Daniel Ripatti at a dance at the Copeland Hall, and they got married July 13th, 1946, in Kalispell, Mont.They had three children: Danette (1947), Mike (1948), Steve (1949). They made their home in Copeland, Idaho, near the Kootenai River at the end of what is now Flat House Road in Drainage District 6.

Their home was flooded in 1948 and again threatened by flood in 1954 and 1956, so they moved over to a log house on 40 acres that they had purchased from Jim Karnes on the hillside above the old K.V. Railroad.

June and Dan made their living from a small herd of beef cattle (about 40 head), and they supplemented their income in the winter by ice fishing on the Kootenai River with set lines for ling. June was the main “bait catcher” of minnows for the set lines. She also helped Dan brand and de-horn cattle and put up hay. Dan and June raised most of their own food, so June was always busy working in the large garden, canning fruit and vegetables, plucking chickens, etc.

June loved to fish, go huckleberry picking, play card games, and go to dances at the community halls. In the winter time, the pinochle parties would sometimes last until 5 a.m.

June was preceded in death by her mom and dad and all but one of her nine brothers and sisters, and her husband Dan Ripatti in March 2005.

She continued to live at her home alone until her death. She is survived by her three children: Danette Ripatti Studer (H.C.), Copeland, Idaho; Mike Ripatti, Copeland, Idaho; Steve Ripatti (Linda), Watsonville, Calif. She is also survived by five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.