June Frances Forte OBITUARY

June Frances Forte OBITUARY

June Frances Forte, 81, of Chicago and later Northern Virginia, died on April 26, 2026 after a life marked by curiosity, independence, and purpose.

Born in 1944 and raised on the South Side of Chicago, June embodied her formative experiences wherever she went: direct, unvarnished, and resistant to pretense. She remained closely connected to her family there, including her brother, the late Jim “Moose” Mulcrone, his wife, Barbara, and their 9 children—her nieces, nephews, and all the family that radiated outward.

Her professional life began in logistics with Air Canada, where her lifelong relationship with travel and punching above her weight first took shape. She traveled to Montreal, Ireland, and Lebanon, as well as booked trips for larger-than-life personalities (she recalled Johnny Cash having been a customer)—experiences that broadened her perspective early and fostered a refusal to stay in one place for long.

In 1962, she married Luis Vega. Together they had two daughters, Annette Marie and Maria Elena. After separating from Luis, June met Frederick Forte in 1969. In 1972 they married in Las Vegas, beginning a partnership that would carry them through more than a dozen moves across the country. In Salisbury, Massachusetts, she worked at the Colonial Arms Motel, providing maid service and helping manage the daily operation of the small beach town property—work she approached with the same thoroughness she brought to everything else.

In 1976, June enlisted in the United States Army and trained at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She served as a photojournalist with the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, conducting interviews with senior military leadership and producing feature stories. She broke ground as the first female photojournalist assigned to the REFORGER advance team in 1978, the only woman in that group. Her work included time embedded with the 10th Mountain Division, observing and documenting their winter survival training.

After completing her service, she pursued higher education, earning a degree in Mass Communications from the University of Southern Colorado and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado. She contributed to local publications during this time, covering symphony performances, boxing matches, and human-interest stories, building the disciplined observational voice that would define her writing.

June continued her career in public service at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, and later in the Washington, D.C. area at Bolling Air Force Base, Andrews Air Force Base, and the Pentagon. She served as Chief of Security Review in Air Force Public Affairs and later as acting chief of National Outreach and Communication, reviewing books, films, and scripts for accuracy and security considerations. She was acknowledged by novelist Tom Clancy for her expertise and assistance, a detail she rarely elaborated on.

In the 2000s, June was instrumental in organizing the National Air Show at Joint Base Andrews, helping coordinate what became one of the region’s most visible public-facing military events. It was work that drew on her ability to operate at scale without losing attention to detail—logistics, communication, and public engagement all moving in concert.

On September 11, 2001, June was at the Pentagon. In her short memoir, A Severe Clear Day, she documented the events with characteristic clarity: the confusion, the smoke, the unspoken coordination of people helping one another to safety. She assisted in the evacuation of colleagues and later helped organize medical supplies as parts of the building became triage areas.

In the years that followed, she became curator of the Pentagon’s 9/11 Memorial Quilt Collection, cataloging and preserving quilts sent from across the country. She managed correspondence from contributors and prepared the collection for exhibition, ensuring that each piece—each story—was recorded and maintained with care.

After retiring from federal service in 2005, June served as an adjunct professor of speech and communications at Northern Virginia Community College. She remained deeply engaged in the literary community, serving as president of Write by the Rails, a chapter of the Virginia Writers Club, and helping establish and grow programs such as “In the Company of Laureates,” an annual gathering that brought together poets laureate and emerging writers for readings, workshops, and public events. The work reflected her instinct to build infrastructure for others—quietly, deliberately, and with high standards.

In her retirement, she extended her love of travel into a deliberate tradition, taking each of her daughters and her grandson on annual trips, including journeys to Australia, a Baltic Sea cruise, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Peru. She was also an avid lover of dogs and rescued two, finding steady companionship in their presence.

June lived in Woodbridge, Virginia for over three decades before relocating to Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 2023. In 2026, she returned to Chicago.

She is survived by her daughters, Annette Marie Bjorntvedt (née Vega) (Steve Erling Bjorntvedt) and Maria Elena Forte; her grandson, Reed Olsen Bjorntvedt; her sister-in-law, Barbara; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A service will be held, featuring a bagpipe performance by Reed. A proud Irish woman of 100% genetic descent, June had once told her grandson, “Don’t play anything Scottish at my funeral!”

June would have preferred that this account be accurate over flattering. It is, to the extent possible, both.