Our family moved to Central Avenue in Broad Ripple Village in 1969. We always loved the area. In 1974, my mother, June, opened The Broad Ripple Book Exchange located at 6407 Ferguson Street. The house was home to a few other businesses in the 1960s but it really came to life when June opened the bookshop!

June and my father, Ron, purchased the home from a well-known Broad Ripple personality/realtor named Jack Fife. Over the next few years, the concept of the store and the name changed to The Broad Ripple Bookshop. For many years, she was part of a handful of businesses that were north of the canal in the little Victorian cottages. June always loved books, she was surrounded by thousands of titles that she kept in a chaotic order that only she knew. You could ask her where any book was and, if she had it, she knew exactly where it was: walk through the next door, go past the shelves in the middle of the room, make a left, go to the bookcase in the left hand corner, third shelf down.

There were many times in her life when she read 10 to 15 books at a time and it was not uncommon to find her in bed early in the morning surrounded by tons of books. Everyone knew the Broad Ripple Bookshop and June and she knew everyone. Over the years, everyone who worked in the bookshop, Kelly, Kate, Gina, Carly and Betty, all remained friends and stayed in touch with her. She was kind to a fault. I remember many times her lending money or helping people who were down on their luck and telling them not to tell my dad. She bought private library collections from some of the most affluent families in Indiana as well as the rest of the country. Just ask my dad who had to trudge and help her stock all of the books over the years!

After 21 years, the Broad Ripple Bookshop started to change in 1995. I moved back from New York with my husband and my mom was kind enough to let me open a small shop in the front of the building which came to be known as Urban Gypsy. Over the next five years, Urban Gypsy grew into half the building and the Bookshop stayed in the remaining half. She became computer savvy and had an online website for the Bookshop; www.broadripplebookshop.com. In 2002, she phased out the use of the store location. The online business continued to grow and she ran the business from the lower part of her home for the next seven years.

For many years, after she left the building, people would come by asking about her and/or the Bookshop. It was not uncommon to look out the windows when she was there and see people with cameras taking pictures of the house because it was well-known for its bookcases loaded with books on the porch. People used the honor system and put money in the mail slot when they selected books after the store was closed for the day.

It's funny how life comes full circle,. I am now in the same house, running a business, establishing relationships in the community just like she did. She was a tremendous influence on me and I am just realizing how much of an influence she was. She always encouraged me to do anything I wanted to do in life and was a great support system for me. June's health had not been great during the last five years. This past March, she decided to have a quadruple bypass and never fully recovered. She passed away at 3:03 a.m. on July 13, 2007 at St. Vincent's hospice. She will be missed my all that knew her. If you have any fond memories to share, please drop a line to us at Urban Gypsy. We are still at 6407 Ferguson Street.