Fri., 26 Jan. 07 Photo by Lance Murphey - June Averyt of Door of Hope, right, hugs a woman who runs Manna House, an ministry for the homeless which shares space with Door of Hope in a small midtown house.

By David Waters of The Commercial Appeal

June Mann Averyt, a tireless advocate for the poor, disabled and homeless, died at home Saturday morning after a long illness. She was 62.

Averyt, born and raised in Marianna, Arkansas, was a theater major who spent the second half of her life performing real acts of mercy and justice.

"The system works fine for lots of folks," Averyt said in 2007. "But if the system worked for my folks, I'd be home right now planting daffodils." She was rarely home.

She founded two Memphis agencies that help the chronically homeless: Door of Hope in 2003, and Outeach Housing & Community in 2011.

She was a catalyst for the Community Alliance for the Homeless and its countywide coordinated entry system.

A few weeks ago, state social workers gave her the 2016 Social Worker Lifetime Achievement Award.

Her faithful service and frank approach inspired many homeless ministries, including Dr. Pete Gathje of Manna House and Rev. Lisa Anderson of Room in the Inn.

"She was like a grumpy Mother Teresa," said Chere' Bradshaw, executive director of the alliance. "For her, it was about justice."

Dr. Averyt spent hours every day helping homeless and disabled men and women reconnect with society. In addition to housing, she helped them get ID cards, Social Security benefits, health care and counseling, medicines and jobs.

"June is directly or indirectly responsible for getting hundreds of people off the streets," Gathje said.

One of those people is Leroy Scott, who was homeless through a decade of unemployment and illness.

"She gave me hope and love when I really needed it," Scott wrote in "A Group Journey Out of Homelessness," a collection of stories written by the Door of Hope Writing Group.

Dr. Averyt was born July 20, 1953, the oldest of four children of June Beasley Mann and Alonzo Greenlaw Mann, a cotton farmer and former president of the National Cotton Council.

After graduating from Southern Methodist University with a fine arts degree, she worked in theater briefly before moving to New York City in the mid-1970s.

A Bible study class led her to Samaritans of New York, a suicide hotline, which she served as a volunteer and then as executive director. She also worked for a ministry for the homeless in Philadelphia before returning to Memphis.

Dr. Averyt received a master's degree in social work from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in social welfare from the University of Pennsylvania. She was a member of Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

She leaves her husband, Murray Allen McKay, and her mother, June Beasley Mann, both of Memphis; sisters Louise Mann of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Burkley Allen of Nashville; and her brother, Bill Mann of Memphis.

Arrangements are incomplete.

The family requests that memorials be sent to Outreach Housing & Community, 135 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, 38104.