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Note: lius. In the first dozen years of his life the family moved at least that many times, from one small town to another in the area where Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkanasas meet on the western fringes of the Ozarks. Sapulpa to Noel to Southwest City back to Sapulpa, then to Joplin, with ventures farther afield to Denver, Colorado and Deadwood, South Dakota. When his parents divorced in 1919, the boys moved with their mother and widowed grandmother to Kansas City. There Junie and Oxley lived for a time at The Boys Hotel, sort of a cross between the YMCA and Boys Town, where teenagers could find a safe, structured enviroment, filled with activities-- music, crafts, sports. Both boys had been surrounded by music since birth, and they naturally played in the band. Junie played a variety of brass and woodwind instruments.
In 1921 they moved to Denver, where their uncle Curt Lowe had preceded them. His musical education continued with lessons from Pearl Whiteman, the sister of the famous bandleader. Although he gave up intstrumental performance as an adult, he had a fine baritone voice which he employed both in church choirs and in soothing his children with lullabies
When he was at Denver's North High School, Junie and Oxley came under the influence of Father Neil Stanley, Rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, which was a very "high church" parish, emphasizing worship through colorful ritual and beuatiful music. It may have been the music that first attracted the boys, but they found themselves at home, and both remained active in Episcopal parishes wherever they lived.
Note: !He was named for his grandfather and was the sixth of the Bristow family to bear the name Ju
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