June Stratton (nee Hyslop) was born on 12 June 1948 and grew up in the suburb of Northland, Wellington.  She attended Northland School, Wellington Girls' College and then, in 1965 at age 16yrs, she enrolled at Victoria University and Wellington Teachers' College.  Over the next four years she completed a Science degree majoring in mathematics and chemistry, graduated with a Diploma in Teaching and gained a Trained Teachers' Certificate.
 
 
In 1969, aged 20, June married her piano accordion duet partner, Gary Stratton, and also began her first teaching position at Hutt Intermediate School.  This was followed by teaching positions at Wainuiomata Intermediate and the Correspondence School.  In 1990 June was appointed Supervisor of Course Writing and Editing at the Correspondence School.  Although this was an interesting and prestigious position, June resigned to give herself more time with her mother who was fighting cancer.  But, two days after resigning, June's mother died.  Shortly after, June began a position at The Open Polytechnic in Lower Hutt.  Over the next few years, June wrote course material on subjects as diverse as hairdressing, Japanese Cooking, Environmental Management, Information Access, and Real Estate. After several years in this writing role, June was appointed Supervisor of Special Projects which included the huge task of successfully gaining University status for the polytechnic and involved travel abroad to lecture and work - in Australia, Thailand and Kiribati.  June resigned from the polytechnic in 1995 and owned and managed Aversham House, a resthome in Masterton, for the next eight years.
In her retirement, June has spent time with her daughters and grandchildren, has travelled with her husband and has written several travel diaries and non-fiction books.  These include 'The story of James Fraser Craig' a Lancaster bomber pilot killed in WW2 and 'A New Life in a New Land' the story of eight generations of the Stratton family in New Zealand.