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59 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 25, 2005 June Lines hauls quilts to the Gold Hill Grange. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Home at the Grange June Lines brings her own style of friendship and helpfulness to the Gold Hill Grange By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune GOLD HILL � As constant as the "goodie table" covered in baked goods, handmade quilts and fruit preserves, Grange members in Gold Hill can count on seeing 81-year-old June Lines in her little pink car, tending to anyone who might need her help. Grangers who don’t drive are chauffeured to meetings, fabric store sales and lunch on a regular basis, and anyone who calls in sick on a Grange function is treated by the California transplant to phone calls, casserole dishes and good cheer until they’re well. "She takes them to lunch. She heads up the bake sales and sits through every bake sale," said Gold Hill resident Cindy Oldfield. "She just � she doesn’t stop. And she’s got aches and pains, too, but she keeps on trucking. She’s a real driving force with the grange ladies." Advertisement Oldfield, who nominated Lines as this week’s Hometown Hero and whose mother benefits from Lines’ generosity, called Lines a true gem whose little pink car is rarely in "park." "When one of them is house-bound or has had surgery, June is notorious for taking them food," Oldfield said. "She goes to see them and keeps a connection going. If June can’t get ahold of them, she’ll go over there. "She’ll organize trips to the fabric stores for big sales, take them to lunch � she’s a hero in my mind. She’s tireless. She just keeps right on trucking in her little pink car." Common among profiled heroes, Lines was quick to decline any credit for her good doings. Lines said she joined the Grange to meet people after moving from her Fresno County home of 20 years. She made her to way to Gold Hill, after losing her husband and son in the same year, to live near a granddaughter. "My granddaughter said, ‘I hate California but I will move there if you won’t move here’," Lines said. "I moved here, and I’m glad I did because it was the most wonderful move I could have made. "When I got up here, I had so much stuff, I had to have a yard sale. That’s when I met a lady at the Grange and that was my undoing." A California native, Lines hails from the small Fresno County community of Sanger, which she called "just a small town out in the boonies, a lot like Gold Hill." After working all her life, including stints for Trans-World Airlines, National Cash Register Co. and in an elementary school cafeteria (her favorite job ever), she said retirement created time to help others. "When you’re busy with family life, it’s hard to be involved in some kind of organization and do justice to your family," Lines said. "Since I came here, joining the Grange is just like going home. I love helping others. The Grange organization is just my kind of thing." Lines acquired her pink car, which sports the color commonly seen on cars earned by top-selling representatives for Mary Kay Cosmetics, when a truck driver totaled her Buick. "I was in Rogue River and a big old truck was making a right-hand turn out of a left hand lane and he run over my Buick," she recalled. No one was hurt, she said. Except the Buick. Unable to afford a new car, her grandson tracked down a ‘95 Pontiac from a minister who lived in Medford. "It didn’t have many miles and was pretty new," Lines recalled. "He said, ‘Well, OK, but I don’t know if she’s gonna go for that pink.’ "So he said, ‘If she’ll take it in spite of the color I’ll knock $500 off it.’ And that’s how I wound up with it.’ You’d be surprised how many people ask me, ‘Oh, is that a Mary Kay car? Here comes Mrs. Mary Kay!’" Oldfield said seeing the pink Pontiac heading from one end of town to the other is a welcome sight — an indication that her mother and other Grange ladies were in good hands. "I’ll be standing in the hardware store and see a little pink car go by with four little white heads inside," she said, "and I’ll go, ‘Well, I guess mom’s going to a Grange meeting.’" Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Slippers Student Loans Tatoo tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoos Advertisement s