Julie L Austin

Julie Austin passed away on December 7, 2023, at the age of 75. Julie was born in Long Beach and graduated from Lakewood High School, where she joined the Girls' League, served on the student cabinet, became a Lancerette, joined Ceres sorority, and was awarded a Jeweled "L" for her service to the school. After high school, Julie volunteered as city playground instructor while attending Long Beach City College. She went on to graduate with honors from the University of California Santa Barbara with a BA degree in Physical Education, where she published a paper entitled "Perceptual and Motor Skills".

Julie's service to others continued after graduation when she became an instructor at the Frostig School for children with learning differences. Wanting to work closer to home, she later joined the staff at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace as a procedural tech writer, where she met and married Lee Austin. At the end of her working career, she served as a manager of the Help Desk at IBM.

In Julie's spare time, she and her husband traveled to Australia and Europe, collected antiques, played golf, took long bike rides and daily walks, and spent weeks decorating the inside of their house for Christmas.

Julie cherished the one-on-one time she spent with her ninety-one-year-old parents who lived in Long Beach. They were still mentally alert and lived in the house they built before Julie was born. Julie would spend every Tuesday and Thursday cooking, cleaning, gardening, running errands for them, and taking them to appointments. It was a pleasure for Julie to help them and be with them.

When her sister quilted a pillow from material of one of their father's shirts as a present for Julie's birthday, Julie always kept the pillow on display. And next to the pillow was the miniature afghan blanket her Gram made for Julie's dog. Julie knew how difficult it was for her Gram's aching hands to knit the afghan. Like everything else surrounding Julie, she would tell you about its meaning through treasured memories.

With service to others in her nature, Julie volunteered at several organizations: The Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary, Skyview School in Orange, St James Church, and the local chapter of Community Bible Study. While donating her time, she contributed generously to many charities and humanitarian organizations.

Julie always showed a genuine interest in others and displayed love, compassion, kindness and gentleness as she often put others before herself, traits she learned from her parents, Jerry and Jody Barber. We will miss her loving smile and uplifting presence.

Julie is survived by her husband of thirty-eight years and her sister and brother.