If the purpose of a "prairie flower" was to help distract the cowboy hero from the bad guys and/or his horse, then lovely "B" blonde actress June Storey fit the bill. She certainly inspired guitar-strumming balladeer Gene Autry to warble a few ditties in ten of his popular Republic Pictures' oaters.
The Toronto-born leading lady moved with her parents and sister at age 5 to the United States, first to Connecticut then to Long Island, New York, then to Southern California. Following graduation from Laguna Beach High School, she turned to the local stage (including the Laguna Playhouse) and, through family connections, won a screen test at 20th Century-Fox that earned her a contract. A wholesome, natural beauty and one-time model, she apprenticed in starlet bits including work in Student Tour (1934), Girls' Dormitory (1936), skater Sonja Henie's vehicle Thin Ice (1937) and the fictionalized retelling of the great Chicago fire of 1871 L'incendie de Chicago (1937). She did not progress in the ranks, however, and was left pretty much high and dry.
In 1939 Republic signed June up and this is where she began her association with Autry, appearing, beginning with Blue Montana Skies (1939), in ten of his westerns within a two-year span. Feeling trapped and uninspired in this setting she left Republic to find a bigger studio but didn't and freelanced for the remainder of her career. Making the effort to branch out into other film genres with the mystery whodunnit The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941) and the noirish End of the Road (1944), she couldn't rise above the second tier in films. Her last leading role was in the Western Song of the Prairie (1945) starring Ken Curtis. She added some radio work ("Ellery Queen") and toured Army camps following this period and after a few supporting/small roles in some obscure films, June retired from the movies after marrying an Oregon rancher. She never returned.
She devoted much of her later life to charitable causes and became a nurse for a time. Her long association with Autry also allowed her to be a frequent guest at western film festivals and Autry tributes. She later sought a spiritual guidance and became a deacon at her Presbyterian Church in Southern California before dying of cancer on December 18, 1991 at age 73. She is interred at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar.
