Lasting Memories

June Jensen
March 30, 1924-Sept. 4, 2023
Menlo Park, California

Menlo Park resident June Jensen, widow of longtime San Mateo County Coroner, Paul B. Jensen, has died at the age of 99. Her husband, coroner for 37 years, died in 1995 at the age of 88.

Mrs. Jensen, mother of five, grandmother of seven, and great grandmother of two; was active in Peninsula clubs, an avid gardener and golfer. At one time, she was one of the few woman daily newspaper city editors in the nation.

She edited the Daily Sunnyvale Standard from 1964 - 1969 while raising her family and later helping to raise two grandchildren. During her journalism career, she also worked for the Berkeley Daily Gazette, the Salinas Californian, the Redwood City Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Altos Town Crier and the Fairfield Daily Republic; among others.

She was news editor of a radio station in San Mateo when she met her future husband who was then an inspector in the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. Their family joke was that they met “in jail” since she was gathering news for the radio station when she interviewed him about an arson case he was investigating.

They lived in Menlo Park most of their 47-years of married life and in the same Menlo Park home since 1967. Their children are: Christopher of Roseville; Kimberley of Menlo Park; Paul of Citrus Heights and identical twins Lars (deceased) and Thor of Vacaville.

After her husband’s death, Mrs. Jensen joined several clubs, serving as president of the Menertons and vice-president of the Cosmopolitan Club of Palo Alto. She supported numerous Democratic candidates during her life and was one of the organizers of the San Mateo County Council of Democratic Clubs in the 1950s and the Menlo Park Democratic Club.

Her interests also included environmental causes and she belonged to the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, CALPIRG, Wilderness Society, Sempervirens, etc. She was instrumental in having redwood trees dedicated to 12 members of her family at Big Basin State Park where she spent many summers in her youth.

She was a graduate of Cupertino Grammar School, Fremont High School (Sunnyvale) and University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in journalism and graduated in less than three years at the age of 20 during the height of World War II.

At her request, there will be no public services but her ashes will be placed next to her husband’s at Golden Gate National Cemetery. A celebration of life will be observed by family members on what would have been her 100th Birthday, on March 30, 2024.