June moved to Santa Maria  in 1947 from Atlanta Georgia after marrying, John Waller (who passed away in 1982) of Waller Flowerseed Company, John was the son of Lionel Waller who started Waller Flowerseed Company in 1912 after working for Routzhan Seed Company. Lionel moved to Arroyo Grande about 1908 to grow sweet peas for Lewis Routzhan. Sweetpeas are the city flower, in part to the work Lionel did 100 years ago here in Arroyo Grande.

Waller Flowerseed Company workers prior to World War II were primarily Japanese. After the war her husband, John Waller, was one of the first farmers to rehire Japanese workers. The Japanese contributions to our valley are in part the result of Lionel’s and Johns's actions. The racism that  affected the Japanese  was never a component of Lionel's or John's thinking.

One of the Routzhan farms Lionel worked on was located on Huasna Road ½ mile east of Crown Hill. Thirty years later he bought that farm from Lewis Routzhan Junior, 22 years later in 1960 the Waller family moved onto that farm. June has lived there for the past 49 years.

June has always been an integral part of the community and a passionate advocate for preservation of farming and farmlands.

She has continued the family heritage of 100 years of farming in the Arroyo Grande Valley. In addition to the home farm where she lives she also owns farmland in the Arroyo Grande Valley, bought by her father in law, in the early 1920’s from Lewis Routzhan and Spencer Records, Joe Swigert’s great-grandfather and still farmed today.

When the Wallers first moved to Arroyo Grande they lived in an old farm house built about 1883 possibly by Spencer Records, Joe Swigert’s  great-grandfather, this house was built as a hunting lodge for local farmers and businessmen.  Reverend Lewis Routzhan performed marriages here.   June said that Buzz Langenbeck, a local barber years back (and the barber of most every man in his 40'snow who grew up in this town) and the owner of the Avocado orchard where the Chevron station now stands (June was not happy about that development!) was married in the house. According to June, the fruit trees in their orchard, of which only two Avocados and one Valencia orange remain were planted by DW Grover, the developer of Grover City.

Longtime residents of our area will remember the flower fields on the home farm on Huasna Road and at the base of highway 1 at the end of Valley Road. These lands, while no longer in flowers continue to be in agriculture as they have been for over 100 years, thanks in part to June's efforts to keep farm land in farming instead of development.

A curious anecdote; at June's first Harvest Festival in  1960 she entered and won the giant pumpkin contest with a pumpkin grown in her garden on the home farm.  Junes son, Richard and his family moved onto the farm in late 2007, at our their first Harvest Festival in 2008 his wife Laurie entered and won the giant pumpkin contest with a pumpkin grown in her garden on the home farm, this pumpkin was grown not 20 feet from where the 1960 winner was grown.
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June raised four children on the farm in Arroyo Grande.  Two, John and Chris continued to be active in the family flower seed business as long as it remained family run.  Her son Richard has been gone for forty years, but is back on the farm both to take care of his mother and to do what he can to keep their farmland in farming for at least the next three generations. Her fourth child, Caroline remains in the area and shares June's desire to keep the land farming.

It is June's desire to see her farmlands preserved in perpetuity either in a conservation easement or other protection so that agriculture will remain the use of the land.

June has been active in the South County Historical Society, as a docent, and financially. She has donated to the Historical Society and other organizations that work for the betterment of our community, including the San Luis Obispo Land Trust and the Boy Scouts of America.   June won’t discuss amounts, but she has been "very generous" as recipients have said.

June was very active in the Presbyterian Church, she served on various committees and taught Sunday School. She served as a volunteer librarian for the private Christian School when it first opened.

June was active in her children's schools as a room mother (Richard remembers being somewhat embarrassed and proud at the same time when she would come to his classroom with cupcakes or Koolaid for a class party) when they were children. June also worked as a volunteer librarian at Ocean View School.

She has been referred to as “the goddess of local history” by one person very active in community activities. Her knowledge of the people and places of Arroyo Grande is extensive.  Her children would love to see her write it all down, or allow her to be tape recorded, but, the for the time being they ask questions and try to remember her answers.

June is truly a representative of the history and future of farming in the Arroyo Grande Valley. She does indeed deserve the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Arroyo Grande Valley Harvest Festival.