June Hudson Owens (BA ’53) excelled in her academic pursuits and in her extracurricular activities when she was a student at The University of Tulsa in the early 1950s. She hopes to help other high-achieving students reach their goals through an estate gift that will fund the June Hudson Owens Scholarship for outstanding students.
Owens was born into a Tulsa oil family. Her parents, Guss C. and Wilma Hudson, owned and operated the Hudson Oil Company of Tulsa for more than 50 years. June’s father passed away in 1984, and her mother died in 2002. June is a lifelong Tulsan, and she graduated from Will Rogers High School before pursuing her degree in the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences at TU.
In addition to focusing on her studies, Owens spent a significant amount of her time serving in campus leadership roles, spearheading numerous events as the Vice President of the Student Council, today called the Student Association. June organized many social activities for the student body, promoted the honor system, and enjoyed social and philanthropic activities with her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. June remains active in the sorority as an alumna, and her name is inscribed on a brick outside the sorority house as part of the TU Sorority Brick Program.
Along with her other accomplishments, June continued to serve after graduation as a social organizer, this time for family and friends, most notably in her 30-year marriage to husband George Owens. George was an attorney and oil executive who worked in the family-owned oil and gas companies and in farming, ranching, and manufacturing. George passed away in 2018. June led George to participate in everything from Book Clubs to gatherings with various sets of friends, some affectionately dubbed the Thursday Lunch Club or the Savoy Gang. Family is important to June, and she is the mother of two adult children, three adult stepchildren, a grandson, and three step-grandchildren.
While June is fun-loving at heart, she is serious about providing academic opportunities for excellent students through her substantial planned gift, which was established in 1985. The June Hudson Owens Scholarship will enable future students to enjoy an excellent education, meaningful personal growth, and the opportunity to build lifelong friendships, much as June did during her undergraduate days at TU.
