June Ellington: Sometimes Magic Happens

I fell in love with White Collar as soon as I saw the pilot. Not only was I thrilled to find a mystery series that didn’t revolve around murders, but the characters were also fascinating. Episodes featuring June Ellington were a special treat. She brings something magical to the stories.

Magic. Really? Let’s back up a few hours. I was drawing a blank on what topic to blog about today, and Silbrith mentioned that we hadn’t written about June yet. An hour later, Matt Bomer tweeted a birthday greeting to Diahann Carroll, the actress who portrays June. See? Magic.

Warning for spoilers for stories in the Caffrey Conversation AU and White Collar episode Empire City.

That led me to watch the episode Empire City again. It features June as her usual, confident self, helping Neal and Peter with a case, teasing Mozzie, and changing her plans mid-stride when Jones and Diana need her to play for time. Oh, and singing. If you’ve read my stories you know I love to include music.

The canon character of June is marvelous. She’s an elegant millionaire with experience as a con artist and a love of adorable rogues like Neal. She plays poker and board games. She loves her two granddaughters. And she sings.

One of the great joys of setting the first stories of my AU in 2003 was that I was able to show June interacting with her husband Byron. That was lovely, and of course she was a pillar of strength through his death and funeral. I had a goal of showing characters grieving as I worked through my own grief, and it was helpful for me to portray her sadness as she tried to remain engaged in the world around her.

When I wrote Caffrey Disclosure, much of the story revolved around a corrupt executive in the music industry. Since June was a singer and her husband had been a musician, of course she is able to help Neal with the case. There were many female characters featured in the story, and I wanted to show mature women acting as mentors to younger women. For June, I had two young musicians in need of her guidance, but June took things a step further than I originally planned. A savvy businesswoman, she purchased a majority interest in a struggling music company, and will use her influence to help many young musicians realize their dreams.

Following in that musical theme, in her story The Mirror, Silbrith added June to the board of directors for the National Jazz Museum and mentions June singing in the Rose Room of the Plaza in An Evening with Genji. June is also supporting Diana in a rather unusual endeavor… but I’ll stop stomping on Silbrith’s toes now. If we're very good, Silbrith may add a comment with her own thoughts about June.

It was a pleasure to feature June recently in one of my Caffrey Vignettes, which are a series of short, stand-alone stories. Well, the stories are short for me, compared to the other things I’ve written. Each chapter is a separate story, and in the Casual Day chapter June adopts the pet we know from canon: a Pug named Bugsy. About a week from now I’ll add another chapter, and again June will add her magic to the story about April Fool’s Day.