June Millington

Managed and promoted by Richard "Dick" Leventon (born January 4, 1938; died September 30, 1991), The Svelts performed at sock hops, air force bases, and frat parties and gradually built a following.

He had graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1939, and was a son of Professor Howard G. Millington, a noted folklorist.

June Millington's parents were married in Manila in May 1947, and divorced in California in March 1970.

June Elizabeth Millington (born April 14, 1948) is a Filipina-American guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, and actress.

June Elizabeth Millington was born in Manila, the Philippines, on April 14, 1948, the eldest of the seven children of Filipina socialite "Yola" Yolanda Leonor Limjoco Millington (born February 10, 1922, in Lian, Batangas, the Philippines; died December 19, 2002, in California, U.S.), and former United States Navy Lt. Commander John "Jack" Howard Millington (born September 18, 1915, in Burlington, Vermont; died June 24, 1980, in Bristol, Vermont).

Millington is the older sister of bassist Jean Y. Millington Adamian (born May 25, 1949, in Manila), Richard J. Millington, Stephen H. Millington, James E. Millington, David S. Millington, and Sylvia F. G. Millington Lyons.

While students at McClatchy, the Millington sisters formed a band with Zenaida "Zenny" Prodon (born June 1949) (Class of 1965), an American Field Service exchange student from Meycauayan Institute High School (now Meycauayan College) in Meycauayan, Bulacan, Philippines.

Later, Terry was replaced on drums by Filipino American Brie Berry (born August 9, 1949), who was a student at Folsom High School (class of 1967).

After a number of personnel changes, including five different drummers, the Millington sisters were joined in 1968 by lead guitarist Adrienne "Addie" Lee Clement (from the Palo Alto band California Girls), recent graduate of Cubberley High School; and drummer Alice Monroe de Buhr (born September 4, 1949, in Mason City, Iowa), who had moved to California at age 17, after the divorce of her parents, in search of fame and fortune.

Additionally, during 1953, Millington and her family lived for a year in Baguio with her grandparents.

At the age of eight, Millington began playing piano to entertain her family, and later listened to music on the radio and attempted to play along on ukulele.

Her family encouraged her to sing and play ukulele at gatherings.

Millington and her siblings attended The American School, then located in Donada Street in Pasay in Manila, where she later recalled: "the racism we encountered at the American School was crushing."

By 1960 Millington transferred to the Assumption Convent school located in Makati, Metro Manila.

Jack and Yola Millington and their children lived luxuriously with Yola's parents Angel Limjoco and Felisa Limjoco (née Lejano) in various Manila locations until they moved to the United States in 1961, including at 56 R. Pascual Street, San Juan (then part of Rizal province); in the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong; near the old American School in Pasay; and on N. Domingo Street, San Juan; and for several months just before they emigrated at the Howell Compound in Quezon City.

Early in 1961, when Millington was in the seventh grade, she heard a girl play the guitar, which jump-started her interest in the instrument.

Three weeks later, in May 1961, the Millington family left the Philippines for the United States on the SS President Cleveland.

While on board ship, Millington switched from playing the ukulele to acoustic guitar.

On June 22, 1961, the Millington family arrived in the U.S., and then settled in Sacramento, California.

Millington recalled: "We always felt like "other", never quite fitting in, both in Manila and Sacramento. Being both biracial and bicultural was a really really tough slot in the '50s into the '60s, our formative teenage years."

In an attempt to become more popular and make friends, in 1962, Millington and her Sister Jean wrote their first song "Angel in White", followed by "Miss Wallflower '62", which they sang with two other girls on their ukuleles at their junior high school variety show.

Millington recalled that afterwards, "Kids started coming up to us and telling us they liked it. So it dawned on us this was a way to make friends."

In 1962, Millington and her Sister Jean began to sing folk songs together as an acoustic duo at hootenannies and similar events, including the songs of Peter, Paul and Mary and other artists featured on the television program Hootenanny.

Later in 1962, Millington and her Sister Jean enrolled in the class of 1966 at C. K. McClatchy High School.

During 1963, Millington was a member of a YWCA conference group of senior high school students chosen to visit the California State Legislature.

With her mother's assistance, but against her father's wishes, in late 1964, Millington switched from acoustic guitar to electric guitar and bass after a girl from another school who played drums [Kathy Terry] asked if Millington and her Sister Jean would like to start a band.

By early 1965, Millington and her Sister Jean formed The Svelts, an all-female rock band, with June on rhythm guitar, Jean on bass, Kathy Terry on drums, and Cathy Carter on guitar.

According to Millington, the band's name, "came from a word my brother had just learned in school. To be svelte: thin, lithe. It sounded like what we wanted to be, kinda classy!"

The Svelts rehearsed initially in Terry's living room in Sacramento.

Before their senior year, Millington and her Sister Jean performed during the summer of 1965 as a duo.

In September 1965, they copyrighted their song "Footloose and Fancy-Free".

After graduation from high school in 1966, Millington enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where, hoping to become a surgeon, she majored in premedical studies with a minor in music.

However, after a year, Millington decided to suspend her studies to focus on her musical career.

Millington was the founder of the music groups the Svelts and Wild Honey, before becoming co-founder and lead guitarist of the all-female rock band Fanny, which was active from 1970 to 1974.

Millington has been called "a godmother of women's music", and is the co-founder and artistic director of the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) in Goshen, Massachusetts.

In November 2012, Millington recalled:

"Was it hard? Hell, yeah. Girls weren't supposed to go electric, so the resistance was incredible at first. Was it fun? You bet. By keeping our grades up at school, we began to lead successful double lives as Philippine-American girls by day, budding rockers at night, except we didn't do rock as much as we did girl group songs and Motown, which meant 'He's So Fine' and 'Heatwave,' with 'The Night Before' and 'You Really Got Me' thrown in. If people danced to it, we did it. They were all great songs to cut your teeth on and learn compositionally."

On her 13th birthday, Millington was given a small, hand-made, mother-of-pearl inlaid guitar by her mother.

Millington recalled in 2013:

"We were like, 'Yeah, okay!' My dad took me to a pawn shop and got me a Sears Roebuck guitar with a little matching amp. That was my first rig–a complete and total thrill. Jean and I flipped a coin to see who would play bass in the band. (laughs) I won, so I got to stay on guitar. We learned to play by listening to the radio and by hanging out with boys who were in bands. We were 15 or 16 at the time."