June Frazer, former tenured professor at Western Illinois University, died on September 25. She was 88 years old.
Dr. Frazer began her career in academia teaching English at Mercer University in Georgia and Milliken University in Illinois. She eventually transitioned to Western Illinois University, where she was a tenured professor for more than two decades. Her scholarship focused on women’s literature and women’s studies. She taught courses that centered around the works of ninteenth-century women authors, including the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. She also had an interest in detective fiction, writing several essays on a wide-range of writers such as Edgar Allen Poe and Agatha Christie.
After her retirement, Dr. Frazer was an active volunteer in hospital and medical facilities, educational programs, religious organizations, and Alcoholics Anonymous. Later in life, she moved to Concord, New Hampshire, and was an elected member of the New Hampshire State House of Representatives from 2010 to 2016.
Dr. Frazer was a graduate of Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where she majored in English. She received her master’s degree and a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.