June Cooke was born in South Windsor, Connecticut. She lived there and was a member of the South Windsor Historical Society until her marriage to David Cooke, when she moved to Rocky Hill. After retirement, she joined the Rocky Hill Historical Society as a life member.
June Cooke was founder of “The Friends of the Office of State Archaeology” where she also served as treasurer and assistant treasurer. For a time, until moving to Arizona, June published the organization’s newsletter with Mae Johnson.
June became interested in the Dividend area after seeing a shear factory noted on an early Rocky Hill map. She started exploring the area for the site. Once found, June began research on what was known as the Pleasant Valley Foundry. That led to research on the entire area of industrial sites along Dividend Brook.