June Sturz, named as the 2007 Outstanding Senior Citizen in Bayonne, is well-known in town, whether it is for her monthly column “In Tune with June” in the Bayonne Community News, her dancing classes as part of a community education program, or her very visible presence as a singer and piano player with the Bayonne Senior Orchestra.
In a letter to Sturz announcing this distinction, Mayor Joseph Doria said that her contributions within Bayonne serve to inspire the entire Hudson County community.
Each year, municipal leaders select a senior citizen from within their community that has shown outstanding service to their families, their neighborhoods, and the larger community.
These seniors gathered to be honored at a special luncheon at Casino in the Park in Jersey City.
Chosen annually since 1988, these seniors are named by the mayors of their community as people who have a significant impact on the senior citizens in their municipalities.
Thought about medicine; she became a teacher
Born in Brooklyn, Sturz has lived in Bayonne since 1982 when she married Mel Sturz.
June has always been the overachiever that she appears to be now as a senior citizen. When she attended college in Ohio, she had three majors, each apparently seeking to satisfy various interests in her life.
Sturz thought she was going to take a career in medicine, so she majored in pre-med at college. She also majored in French and English.
Perhaps appropriately, she was named “Outstanding Senior” at college and now an outstanding senior citizen in her home community.
“Two years ago, I played with the Senior Orchestra at the event I’m being honored at this year,” she said.
Why did she think she wanted to pursue medicine?
“My mother was a dentist,” she said.
And this may explain why she teaches about healthy bones in her class “Sing and Dance for the Health of It.”
From Ohio State, Sturz went to Columbia University, where she earned a Master of Contemporary American Literature degree.
“I even have some credits toward a Ph.D.,” she said.
Sturz taught high school English in Jackson Heights, and then lived in Queens.
When she married for the first time, she moved to River Edge, N.J. where she raised three children. When her first husband passed away, she came to Bayonne. She started writing for the Bayonne Community News a year later.
She became involved with a musical program at the Bayonne Jewish Community Center, and a program called “Suddenly Single” for newly widowed or divorced people.
She also lectured at Bayonne Medical Center.
Keeping busy is a key element to her philosophy on life.
“I keep telling people in my classes that you have to keep moving,” she said.
For her, this also means balance and weight-training exercises, as well as health and nutrition.
At one point, she was involved in the educational programs for the Boy Scouts, and sometimes went to local schools to talk about journalism.
While working with the Boy Scouts, Sturz made an appearance on The Joe Franklin Show.
“My son was in school in Washington. When he turned on the TV, there I was,” she said.
Life has been good
Sturz said life has been good for her. She said she had a good upbringing.
She also ate whole-wheat bread and fresh fruit long before eating healthy was fashionable.
Exercise and a good diet, she believes, have helped keep her healthy over the years.
She doesn’t talk about how old she is, saying age is a state of mind.
“I don’t think people should be defeated by numbers,” she said.
A natural flirt, she sees herself as perpetually “Sweet 16,” even though she also boasts of having three adult children and six grandchildren – whom she keeps in contact via e-mail. Her children live in California and in Boston.
She sees kids as the dessert of her life, not the meat and potatoes.
“I gave my children a good education,” she said. “Now I like them to see what their mother is doing.”
Sturz said she is pleased to be honored for her work as a senior citizen, and that her family is pleased as well.
“It is nice to get some recognition,” she said.
Music is a huge part of her life
Although briefly involved in politics while living in River Edge, Sturz avoided politics after she came to Bayonne.
“I never ran for office and I had no desire to run,” she said.
Her community involvement has nothing to do with elective office or financial gain.
“I do most things because I want to do them, not because I get paid. For most things I don’t get paid,” she said. “To tell you the truth, I don’t like to deal with money.”
She’s worked jobs most of her life. In Ohio, she taught dance because, as she said, “I got to meet all the boys. I’ve always liked boys, and fortunately boys always liked me. I used to send my paycheck home to my father.”
He apparently saved the money for her. Later, she used the money on her honeymoon.
She said she always had great respect for her mother, who defied the stereotypes.
Sturz has always loved music.
“I’ve played piano all of my life,” she said.
Out of high school, she got a job playing piano in a local pub. She said she was more than a little overwhelmed by all the cigarette smoke and the alcohol-laden environment.
Of course, life has had its twists.
“The one thing I didn’t want to do when I was young was teach,” she said. “And that’s what I ended up doing.”