June (Hake) Kobi

June Ilene Hake was born on Sunday, March 21, 1937, the eleventh and last child born to George Hartman Hake and Margaret Matilda (Doutt) Hake, both of whom were descended from German immigrants. When June was born the Hake family was living on a house at #502 Montgomery Avenue Extension on the extreme southern edge of the Mahoningtown section of New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. This house sat on the southwest corner of the intersection of Routes 18 and 108 (known as “the Y”), exactly where the bridge on Route 108/Mount Jackson Road currently spans the Mahoning River.

When June was born the country, just beginning to claw its way out of the Great Depression, was immersed in isolationism and concerned with economic recovery at home. Things changed dramatically on December 7, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked the American fortress at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As June was preparing to start school two of her brothers, Robert and Paul, were serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

June would have attended schools in Mahoningtown and Mount Jackson, attended services at the Madison Avenue Christian Church in Mahoningtown with her family, and spent a lot of time frolicking in the local swimming holes. In early May 1955, when June was finishing up the tenth grade, her father was killed in a tragic railroad accident in Mahoningtown. She eventually graduated from North Beaver Township High School in June 1957. She immediately signed up to take an examination to join the United States Air Force’s Women in the Air Force (WAF) program, formed in 1948 to allow women to serve in limited roles within the service branch. Her brother John, two years her elder, had joined the Air Force back in September 1956 and was serving in Japan.

June was admitted to the WAF and was later stationed at Scott Air Force Base in southwest Illinois, where she met a fellow Air Force member named Robert “Bob” J. Kobi. Kobi was from Pittston in eastern Pennsylvania and a graduate of Pittston High School. They were married in the base chapel aboard Scott Air Force Base on Tuesday, June 13, 1939.

June soon left the USAF as they planned to start a family. Bob remained a “lifer” in the USAF and would eventually retire as a Chief Master Sergeant (E9) in May 1983. They had two children together: Margaret born in April 1960 and John born in July 1961. They spent time at various bases including Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts - at which time they resided in nearby Lowell.

Eventually June and Bob divorced and she moved back to New Castle and took up residence on Madison Avenue in Mahoningtown. After retirement Bob settled in Montgomery, Alabama, and her children eventually moved down to the Austin, Texas, area. June, who lives a very private life, still lives in semi-seclusion in Mahoningtown.