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June R. Ripatti

December 7, 1925 ~ December 30, 2013
December 30, 2013
June Ripatti, surrounded by her family at a late Christmas celebration December 28.
June R. Ripatti, 88, passed away on December 30, 2013 at her Copeland Area home. Funeral Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 11, at the Bonners Ferry Funeral Home, with interment following in the in the Copeland Cemetery. Following the graveside service, family, friends and neighbors are invited to share a potluck meal in celebration of June’s life at the Copeland Hall.

"We had a late Christmas at Grandma June Ripatti's house on Saturday, December 28th," Kelli Ripatti wrote the day of her grandmother's passing. "She spent most of the day snuggled in her bed in the living room while chaos reigned around her. Balloons were batted back and forth, and we held our breath as one slowly drifted down upon our slumbering grandma. Without missing a beat, she reached her frail arm up and batted that balloon right back to us! She was the gamester in our family. Many days were passed drinking lattes and playing Yahtzee, Aggravation, and any card game she could think of. Today, she left us. I am so thankful we had one last game with our Grandma! She was loved by many and will be missed by all she left behind."

June was born in Inman, Virginia, to Tom and Sally Ann (Rutherford) Collins on December 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 in 1943.

June met Daniel Ripatti at a dance at the Copeland Hall, and they got married July 13, 1946, in Kalispell, Montana. They had three children: Danette, 1947, Mike 1948 and Steve, 1949. They made their home in Copeland 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 about 40 head of beef cattle, and they supplemented their income in the winter by ice fishing on the Kootenai River with set lines for ling. June was the main “bate" catcher of minnows for the set lines.

She also helped Dan brand and dehorn 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 and more.

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, 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 and husband HC of Copeland, Idaho; Mike Ripatti, Copeland, Idaho; and Steve Ripatti and wife Linda of Watsonville, California. She is also survived by five grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

Family and friends are invited to sign June’s book at www.bonnersferryfuneralhome.com.

Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Bonners Ferry Funeral Home.