Celebration services of June's life will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, August 11, at the University Presbyterian Church, 209 East Franklin St., Chapel Hill.

Mrs. McDermott was born Oct. 26, 1954 to Lt. Col. Robert Virgil Hall and Jennie Brannen Hall minutes before her identical twin, Jane. She grew up in Winterville, attended the Winterville Baptist Church and graduated from D.H. Conley High School. She earned her undergraduate degree and a master's degree in pharmacy at UNC-Chapel Hill and a master's in business administration from Meredith College. She married Bill McDermott in 1981 and they are the parents of two wonderful children, a daughter, Lauren, of Chapel Hill, and a son, Alex, of Pinehurst. She was preceded in death by her father, Bob, and her brother, Bobby.

"She will be deeply missed by all who knew her, not just for her warm, caring and lively personality, but also for the profound influence she had on everyone with whom she interacted during her life," said a family member. "She led by example, with optimism, grace, dignity, gratitude and kindness, even in adversity."

Mrs. McDermott's mission was to forge new paths and in her career as a pharmacist, she passionately researched and embraced alternative ways for treating patients. She practiced her teachings and attributed her exceptional quality of life, in spite of disease, to the integration of complementary and alternative medicines in her lifestyle. Her students at the UNC School of Pharmacy came to know her as an open-minded teacher, willing to go that extra mile not only in their academic studies but also in helping them when they needed an extra hand to succeed. Her influence in the area of complementary and alternative medicines was felt nationwide; she always found presenting programs and sharing her knowledge with numerous other healthcare professionals to be extremely rewarding.

Mrs. McDermott is survived by her two children; her mother, Jennie, of Winterville; her two sisters, Jane Diehl and her sons, Michael, Ben and John of Durham, and Lynda Falushy and her husband, Zoltan, of Denver, Colo.; her nieces, Marnie Aulabaugh and her husband, Dirk, of Los Angeles, Calif., and Paula Martin and her husband, Scotty, of Denver, Colo.; her nephews, Sean Eckard and his wife, Lauren, of Richmond, Va., and Chris and his wife, Jennifer, of Mulica Hill, N.J.; seven great-nieces and nephews; numerous cousins; and a loving friend, Tony Welder, of Bismarck, N.D.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in her name to Pharmacy Foundation, 194 Finley Golf Course Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27517 for support of students interested in studying complementary and alternative medicines, or to UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Campus Box 7295 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7295 for the continuing support of complementary medicine services.