The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - June Heintz, Mother, Wife & Tibetan Buddhist, Joined Marc Hunt Live On “A Life, Unedited!"

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

June Heintz, Mother, Wife & Tibetan Buddhist, joined Marc Hunt live on A Life, Unedited! A Life, Unedited airs live Wednesday from 10:15 pm – 11:00 am on The I Love CVille Network. “A Life, Unedited” is presented by Martha Jefferson House.

Good morning. My name is Mark Hunt, and this is a life unedited. In this podcast, I get to sit down with extraordinary people to hear their life stories without the filters of hindsight. Today, I'm honored to have June Heights on our show. June is a lifelong Buddhist, a mother, and a devoted wife. June's life has been shaped by compassion, love, and the quiet understanding that fulfillment comes from simply being present for others. June, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for asking me. So June, you were born in Roswell, New Mexico,

while your father was in the army as a pilot. Well, he started out as a pilot, but he failed his landing. He landed the plane 10 feet above the ground, which indicated that there was something wrong with his vision. And so he was put into a U.S. unit which was supervising downed German pilots.

Interesting. And this is during World War II? Yes. Wow. The end of World War II. So after Roswell, you moved to Arkansas, where you spent the majority of your childhood in adolescence? Yes. Both of my grandparents lived in Arkansas. That's where my parents were from.

Nice. What was your childhood like in Arkansas? It was wonderful. We lived on Sheridan Avenue. which was a street that went along the crest of a mountain, and down below us was a lake where my brother and I and the three boys who lived across the street would scamper down that hill, and there was a rowboat at the bottom. My dad would take us rowing.

We had a little Cocker Spaniel dog, and Rex's ears would spread out. out on top of the water and flow behind him on top of the water and when we got out Rex would shake and then his hair would curl all the way

around in a nice neat little pattern yeah but he was an outside dog we only had outdoor dogs because in Arkansas that's what people have they don't have campered indoor pets times of

changed. You're the oldest of five siblings. As a child, did you feel the responsibility as the oldest sibling? Well, I didn't identify it as a responsibility, but I was asked to hang up my baby brother's diapers. My mother was a super mom. a 1950s mother, and she did did much of the work herself. Mom and dad had a garden because growing your own food was important to them. And many people had gardens in those days. I'm sure. Coming out of the Depression era, having your own food was a big priority, I'm sure.

And it was much tastier. I'm sure, yeah, absolutely. So you grew up kind of hanging out in the woods and out in nature, which sounds like the perfect childhood. What was your adolescence? Like, what was your high school? By living outside, which I spent most of my time outside, until I was in high school

when I became you know, a princess. My brother says I was a princess because I was the first and I was a girl and I was very popular in high school. Yeah. You told me yesterday when we were talking

about an experience that happened I guess it would probably be prior to high school that was really like a life-defining moment for you. It was something that your mom had asked you to do, and then something that your father had said, can you tell me about that? So mom had asked me to hang out my youngest brother's diapers. I was 17 years older than my youngest brother,

and we're very good friends now. And I said to my dad as I lugged the clothes down to the clothes line, Dad, I don't want to do this. And Dad came close to me and he said, June, we always do what we want to do. Which boggled my mind because I just said, I don't want to do this. But here I was doing it.

So that caused me to go over my mind and identify that I did want to do it because I wanted to please my mother and I wanted to help my mother. So that showed me that there are layers of the mind that have to be explored before you can come out with a declarative sentence like I don't want to do this.

And that, I think, influenced my turning toward Buddhism. I was not a lifelong Buddhist. My parents were not. We went to Christian churches. And I considered myself, a Christian, but I always had a problem with the belief factor. What does that mean? What does it mean to believe?

So I took a different path. Well, that's fascinating. I feel like there's so many similarities too with you. If you grew up in a Christian household, there's a lot of similarities with Buddhism or a lot of overlays. but I'll get into that a little bit. Do you think that your parents taught you compassion? Hmm.

Well, it was never identified as a lesson on compassion. But to be kind was always a guiding principle. and to do no harm was a guiding principal. So it was in the air to be kind. To be kind, to be compassionate. Well, fast forward through high school. You went to a dance that changed your life. Actually, it was a blind date.

Okay, it was a blind date. In college. And a friend of mine who went to the same college that I did, said, there's someone I want you to meet. Now, my friend Alice Neff was not someone who you would think would be a good judge of personality, but in this case, she hit it right on the head. And I had a date with my husband to be, whose name is Frank. And I think I fell in love with him when he came down the steps.

I looked at him, and he was tall and slim. And then, oh, yes. And then on our first date, we went to Trader Vicks, which was a really classy restaurant, bar, dance place. And I danced with Frank, and he smelled good. And he felt good. So, yes, I fell in love with him that night. And he called me back, and it was wonderful. In those days, of course, women had to wait until the young man called you.

Called you at your house. Yeah. To take me out. Wow. So after you started dating, what was that time like? Do you remember? Oh, yes. I remember it well.

Frank had a motorcycle, and we would ride off together. I had long hair, hair flying in the wind. very romantic, holding on to my future husband. He felt so good, and I felt so safe with him, although I wasn't safe with him, and that we were on a motorcycle. Yeah. Yes.

How could you not love Frank? I mean, he smelled good, he was good-looking, tall, and he had a motorcycle. Yes. He checks all the boxes. So two years later, later, you two were married. Do you feel like it was impulsive or inevitable? Hmm. Both.

Both. We were, that was the summer that Hubert Humphrey, who was vice president, was asking college students who were in Washington, D.C. to, he asked college students to come to Washington, D.C. and be part of the government. government. So I worked in the Department of Agriculture where my dad worked. And Frank and I would meet on the mall. He worked at the Smithsonian in their warehouse. We'd meet every day for lunch. And at the end of the summer, I said, Frank, why don't we just get married? Of course, Frank doesn't remember it like that. And so we were married that weekend.

And we went back to our two schools. He went back to Yale. I went back to Randolph-Macon Women's College, which no longer exists. It's now Randolph College. And we, Frank would come down every three weeks, and I would occasionally ride the bus to New York, and Frank would meet me and take me on to New Haven.

Yeah, it was very very, romantic and very exciting. So after college, you both decided to join the Peace Corps. Where did the Peace Corps send you? Well, first, you should know that in that time, young men of Frank's age were being sent to Vietnam.

And although joining the Peace Corps was not an official exemption. It functioned as that. So we went to India where we were assigned to a... Actually, it wasn't a village. Villages were further out. It was a small town

and a crossroads between a British meter railroad and highway. We were very odd. to the people there. White skin, hair,

Frank's hair was red. My hair was McCodzacase, the color of corn silk. That was identified by the young woman who worked for me. She was 14. And?

What was your job in the Peace Corps? It was ridiculous. we were assigned to a project on family planning. A very intimate subject. And we would go out to the villages from this town. We'd go out to the villages walking. I wore at the beginning Western clothes, but at the end, sorry's. And Frank would go out with his co-worker, who was a very brilliant man,

and had on his own learned English. Wow. Yeah. Was that part of India, was it primarily Hindu or Buddhist? Was that primarily? Was that primarily? Was that primarily? Is it primarily Hindu?

Yes, Maharashtra is Paka Hindu, as they say. So when did your spirituality and... knowledge or commitment to Buddhism start. It was after Frank and I had lived in Baltimore for some years, and we were going to a meditation center called the Shambala Center. Shambala was unknown to us, the product of the brilliant mind of Trunker Rimbusha Rimbusha. who started all of Shambala and created Shambala training.

And while we were going to the Shambala Center, there appeared a mimeographed notice that there was a new Dharma center, Dharma being the teachings, or moment-to-moment experience, however you interpret it, in the Shenandoah Valley. and so Frank and I the next year went to the second year of the mandrolling lotus garden retreat center

in which the former horse stall was being turned into dormitory rooms and this is now a large meditation center with students from all over the world many from Europe. There's a center in Europe and many from the United States. And we began to follow Condor Wimbushe, my teacher. This is an oral tradition and she was the daughter of the head

of one of the four branches of Tibetan Buddhism. She had been identified as a baby by His Holiness of Karmapa, and she had been very well trained from babyhood in the teachings, in the text. She's a very brilliant woman who can bring up quotes from Milarepa, Patril Rimbushe,

and these are all names that are in the Buddhist tradition in this particular brain. branch of Buddhism. Wow, that's fascinating. That's so incredible. So after the Peace Corps, you moved to downtown Baltimore with Frank.

What was that timing of your life prior to having kids living in... Oh, we have a lot of fun. Yeah, we played broomball in the street, which was Frank's idea, with two brooms and a ball. It was kind of a soccer, in a way or a lacrosse or...

A combination of them. Yeah, right. With lines and shooting with a broom. Try to get it in the goal. Yeah, so we hung out together. How many years were you in downtown Baltimore before you moved outside of the city? Oh, I never thought of that.

And I can't do that calculation right now. Multiple years? a few years yes and at one point i thought i was pregnant and that gave me the idea hmm that wouldn't be such a bad thing because we didn't neither of us wanted to have children we didn't talk about it but we just assumed that we wouldn't and then all of a sudden my mind changed and i thought that would be that would be fun it was interesting. A huge responsibility.

So you and Frank, when you made that decision that you were going to have kids, you decided to move outside of the city. Was it rural Maryland or? Suburbs. We moved into the suburbs. A beautiful suburb. over a stream, a rushing stream that I went down to every day in woods

the deer were damaging the woods badly and I guess they continue to do so So you bought a house in the suburbs and you lived there for 42 years? 42 years Wow, that's incredible and then we came to Charlottesville Wow

and you came to Charlottesville because your daughter went to UVA Yes, and her husband. And Adrian said she was pregnant. That's the main reason we came. Yeah, if you don't want to miss out on the grandkids, for sure. What was motherhood like for you all of a sudden, going from living in India to then living in downtown Baltimore, and then all, it's a big transition.

Well, first, it connected me with the human, family and connected me with the world because it would impact my children, what was happening in the world. I think that Frank and I were always, we always followed politics. Yeah, Frank was in, at Yale became very interested in politics and actually was arrested in Mississippi and spent a night in jail. registering voters in Mississippi. And I loved him for that.

I have never met him and I love him for that as well. Yeah, yeah. And I've forgotten your question. I just said, you know, you all of a sudden became a mother and moved outside of the city. What was that experience like for you? Well, as I have said, I suddenly

became connected with the human family. And you have one boy and one girl? Mm-hmm. Nice. Which one's older?

My son. Your son. My son. Nice. How was Frank as a father? He was a traditional 50s father, which means that he

didn't have a lot of direct involvement with Alden and Laurel. I was the main parent and Frank was the income producer. He left for work every morning and worked in his office room at home all through the weekend. Yeah, he was a little extreme. What was his career or what was his position at that time? He started out as an appointee of the governor to be the governor's assistant, and then he was appointed as the head of the Maryland Public Service Commission, which was the agency that ruled.

It was a legal hearing on rates of taxpayers from gas and electric, to taxis. Wow. That's a big job. No wonder he's working nonstop. Yeah, yeah. He felt a big responsibility, especially when he could predict a power outage was going to happen when a hurricane came through.

Oh, wow. Oh, that worried him terribly. He didn't sleep for the whole weekend. Yeah. And then he mentioned he became a CEO eventually? Yes, he was eventually appointed. as the CEO. Wow.

Yes. Wow. That's a, I'm sure it's work workload increased after that. Yep. Yep. Um, so your daughter went to UVA and her and her husband settled here in Charlottesville. And then your first grandk came and you and Frank decided to move from your home in Maryland to Charlottesville, Virginia.

What was that transition like? Well, Frank didn't like change and so he pretty much closed up during that time period. And yet he wanted to come, he just couldn't deal with all the anxiety of things being completely different. So I took care of the move. you know, there are a lot of people that can help you with the move. There are a lot of people willing to take your money. And we renovated a house on 1.8 acres.

It was a scrap of land that was left after Raymond Avenue was built, and it backed up to, oh, my memory has been blown out by a stroke. But it was here in Charlestville? Yeah. Nice. You've seen a lot of change since then, I'm sure. Oh, yes. Charlestville's just exploded.

Yes. Well, in 2018, Frank passed away from a terminal illness. How did your life change after that? I was very lonely. I missed Frank very much. I missed our conversations. I missed his holding me. So my body was lonely in a way that I can't describe. But time does, you get used to whatever it is, because you have to go, you have to make life work. Radical change. I was very dependent.

I, Frank did everything, absolutely everything. That was the days of writing checks. So all of a sudden I had to do all of that. And of course, even in those days, it wasn't that much to do, that many bills to pay. But suddenly I was doing everything that Frank had done, some of which I had never done before. I was very pampered.

Very pampered wife. I was a kept woman. Do you feel like your Buddhist practice helped you through any of that? Oh, definitely. Yes. And it helps me every day with change because one of the principles is important. is impermanence and every moment

is passing away. Yes, it did very much and meditation which, for me, is opening into stillness and non-thought.

I'm sure that's super... It's very peaceful. Yeah. and I practice every day and it's a lifeline for me I also have to just mention because you mentioned earlier that you recently had a stroke

yes and you are you look incredible you're doing amazing you wouldn't know if you hadn't mentioned it no but the whole left side of my body is numb

It's not, I can feel when I pinch, I could feel a pinprick, but it's still just like it's, I'm lugging around a dead thing. It works. So I just come back from an adventure. I had, my son, who's always been insisted on doing things in a different way, carried his backpack on the opposite shore. or from everybody else, decided that he didn't want to live in the United States anymore. So he lives in Costa Rica, where there is no military. And I had gone to visit him, and I got back at 2.30 a.m., entered the apartment at 2.30 a.m. And the next day, of course, it was already the next day when I got back, I had a stroke.

And that's when this whole left side of the body thing happened. Wow. Well, you're doing amazing. I'm very lucky. It's my third stroke. You're still outside every day walking around, which is incredible. Yeah. And it's my third stroke. Wow, that's incredible. Which I attribute to a very strong yoga practice and walking every day. Yeah.

Yeah. Keeping your body active. Yeah. What led you to make the decision to move to Martha Jefferson House? Having had three strokes, we lived down a long driveway and backed up into the woods, and I knew that I didn't have anybody to drive me to the hospital, and I wouldn't be able to. So my second stroke was a hemorrhagic stroke, a bleed.

And in that case, I lost consciousness. Frank was there. He took me to the UVA, and I began to have seizures. So that was a very terrifying experience, and I was out for two days. I was unconscious for two days. and I knew that I would not be found. I would not be able to call out to anybody because there were no houses around

because of the fact that just the fact of the environment where we lived. And so I decided it was very smart to apply to Martha Jefferson House. It took four years for me to get in. And I was given, given, because you don't usually get to choose where you live. I was given a beautiful apartment with a large living room, large bedroom, two baths, bathtub, shower.

And so I moved into Martha Jefferson House. And then that was a whole other adjustment. Yeah, I'm sure. Did you give you kind of peace of mind a little bit? Yes. I don't have to worry about being found dead. What do you feel gives your life, what gives you fulfillment now?

What fulfills you now in the day-to-day? Meditating, primarily. The lunch bunch. Because at Martha Jefferson House, you begin to form friendships around your, you're at the table where you sit. Why do people sit at the same table? I think it's because

sameness is just appreciated. And you get to know the people at your table. And the more you know about people, the more you like them generally, the more interesting they are. So I started out at Saul's table and he was really such an interesting and articulate and intelligent and mind.

So I love Saul and I miss him still. And I've gotten to know Gina Miller, who as a black woman, or she has a lot of the characteristics. she's not, you know, everybody who is black is mixed race

pretty much because there was so much going on. You know, Sally Hemmings, that went on a lot. What was a question? No, that you answered it. And that's, you know, that's what's so beautiful about Martha Jefferson

House is that the friendships that you all conform. It's like a second family. Yes. When you look back at your life, what do you feel like you're most proud of? Holding my seat, which was a tonguebrimbeche term.

And he meant holding your presence, your dignity, my mother taught me good posture and I'm now taking physical therapy because of my stroke and they're teaching me that it's okay to bend forward when you're going up that actually you should do that that helps you and push off with your back leg but I've always been completely erect and so was Frank and it's a it's been a point of

of pride, so I'll have to get over that a little bit to go up steps. Definitely helped your health. And my final question, which I ask everyone, years from now, what do you hope your children and grandchildren remember most about you? I hope my smile. And my presence, my sense of dignity, which is expressed in my, which is expressed in my posture and hopefully my stillness. June, you're an incredible woman. I said you are an incredible woman. You have so much resilience.

Thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you, Mark. My name is Mark Hunt, and this is a life unedited where I get to sit down with remarkable people like June Heights. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mark. That was awesome.