Who Is June Baranco?
June Baranco, who also used the name June Gumbel during her marriage, is an American artist and hat designer. Most people first hear her name because of her long marriage to television journalist Bryant Gumbel. The two married in December 1973 and divorced in 2001, which makes the marriage about 28 years long. Her own story goes well beyond that connection, and it is a story about family, creativity and starting a new career later in life.
Search results for her name are crowded with similar articles, and many of them repeat each other or contradict each other. This article sticks to details that are consistently reported and clearly marks anything that is uncertain or unconfirmed.
Early Life and Education
June grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has said that her Aunt Eura, a seamstress, taught her to sew by hand when she was only eight or nine years old. For her tenth birthday, her parents, Jeannie Baranco and the late Joseph Baranco, gave her a sewing machine, which she still owns.
Her formal education was in art. She graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in fine art. This detail matters because it shows that her creative career was not a sudden hobby. She had trained in art, and her interest in making things by hand started in childhood.
A note on her birth date: several websites say she was born on June 22, 1948, and some give her middle name as Carlyn. These claims appear repeatedly, but they are not backed by an official record, so readers should treat them as commonly reported rather than confirmed.
How June Met Bryant Gumbel
The couple met through other people. A mutual friend who was dating Bryant’s brother, sportscaster Greg Gumbel, introduced them. This happened before Bryant became a national television name. He was a young journalist from New Orleans who had graduated from Bates College in 1970, and she was an art student in Louisiana.
They married on December 1, 1973, and most accounts place the wedding in Baton Rouge. Bryant went on to become a well-known figure on NBC’s Today show and later on HBO’s Real Sports, but the marriage began long before that fame.
Children: Bradley and Jillian
June and Bryant have two children. Their son Bradley was born on New Year’s Day in 1979, and their daughter Jillian arrived in 1983. Their full names are Bradley Christopher Gumbel and Jillian Beth Gumbel.
Reports on their adult lives say that Bradley attended Lynn University and worked as an events planner, while Jillian studied at Sarah Lawrence College and later became a yoga instructor. Jillian has been married to William Robins since November 2011. That wedding turned out to be an important moment in June’s own career, as the next section explains.
From Wedding Shopping to Millinery: The Birth of Geaux Chapeaux
The most interesting part of June’s biography is her work as a milliner, which is the traditional word for a hat maker. Her business is called Geaux Chapeaux, a playful name that mixes the LSU “Geaux Tigers” spirit with the French word for hats.
The idea began with her daughter’s wedding. June was shocked by the high prices of bridal headpieces while shopping for the 2011 wedding, and she felt she could make something just as beautiful for much less money. Because she already collected vintage hats, she began taking them apart to learn how they were built. She then started buying vintage supplies such as ribbons, lace, fabrics and hat blocks. She joked that she became the “eBay queen” while hunting for the right materials.
By her second year, she was buying vintage hats and making hats full time. She has said that hat making feels like her calling. She still paints, mostly in pastels but also in oil, though hats became where she focused most of her time.
This is a useful reminder that creative careers can begin at any stage of life. June was in her sixties when she turned a family event into a working business, and she built on skills she had carried since childhood.
The 2014 LSU Event
In February 2014, June returned to Baton Rouge for a public showcase. She displayed her latest designs at “Tea, Fashion & Fancies” at the LSU Rural Life Museum, an event co-sponsored by the Friends of the LSU Textile & Costume Museum that benefited both museums. The event shows that she stayed connected to her home city and her university even after moving away. She has said that New York feels like home but that she needs regular doses of Baton Rouge and its culture.
The Divorce
The end of the marriage drew media attention because of Bryant’s fame. Bryant separated from June in 1997, and their divorce was finalized in 2001. He then married his second wife, Hilary Quinlan, in 2002.
Many articles describe the reasons for the split, usually claiming infidelity, and some give exact figures for a financial settlement, including a claim that June was awarded half of an estimated $20 million fortune. These details come from secondhand media reports and allegations, not from court documents available to the public, so they should not be read as proven facts.
Where Is June Baranco Now?
June has kept a fairly private life. The most reliable information is her own statement that New York is her home and that hat making is her main focus. Some websites say she lives quietly in the New York area, but her exact address and daily life have not been confirmed, so the safest conclusion is that she is a private person who has chosen to share little publicly.
Sorting Fact From Fiction
Because the keyword “june baranco” is so heavily searched, it attracts a lot of low-quality content. Three common problems are worth knowing about:
- Net worth figures. Many pages publish a net worth for her, but none provide documents or a method behind the numbers. Any specific figure should be treated as a guess.
- Mixed-up identities. One website describes a “June Baranco Gumbel” as a biomedical scientist who co-founded a vaccine nonprofit. This does not match the artist and hat designer described here, and the page offers no supporting evidence. It appears to be an unrelated or unreliable profile.
- Dramatic personal claims. Several pages describe private emotional struggles in detail. These descriptions come from unnamed sources and should not be treated as verified.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is June Baranco?
She is an American artist and milliner who was formerly married to journalist Bryant Gumbel.
When did June Baranco marry Bryant Gumbel?
They married on December 1, 1973.
How many children does June Baranco have?
She has two, Bradley Christopher Gumbel and Jillian Beth Gumbel.
What does June Baranco do for work?
She designs and sells hats and fascinators through her business, Geaux Chapeaux, and she also paints.
Did June Baranco go to college?
Yes. She earned a fine art degree from LSU in 1971.
When did the marriage end?
They separated in 1997, and the divorce was finalized in 2001.
Final Thoughts
June Baranco’s life is often reduced to one famous marriage, but the verified details show a woman with her own path. She learned to sew as a child, studied fine art at LSU, raised two children and later built a hat business out of a simple frustration with wedding prices. Her story is a good example of how a private person can still build a meaningful body of work.
Disclaimer
This article is for general informational purposes only. It is based on publicly available information as of October 2026. Some details about private matters, such as birth date, divorce reasons, settlement amounts, net worth and current residence, are not confirmed by official records and are noted as unverified where they appear. The article does not make claims about any person’s private character or conduct beyond what has been publicly reported. If you are the subject of this article or a representative and would like a correction, please contact the publisher.
EXPLORE MORE: Laura Deibel: Who She Is, Her Marriage to Tim Allen, and What Is Actually Verified
Readers curious about other high-profile relationships can also check out our detailed report on Kelsea Ballerini’s marriage and love life.
Written by Hassan, founder and editor of NTX Magazine — an independent news and biography publication. Every article is researched and cross-checked against multiple public sources before publishing; see our Sourcing Standards page for details.
