June Bosley Dabney-Gray was born April 13, 1935 in St. Louis Missouri to Preston Tyler Bosley and Alma Jean (nee Thompson) Bosley. Her parents migrated to St. Louis from Little Rock, Arkansas shortly after their marriage in 1923. Preston Bosley worked for more than 50 years as a railway clerk for the Missouri Pacific Railroad traveling between Omaha and St. Louis. According to Dabney-Gray, he was the first African American in St. Louis to advance to clerk-in-charge. Preston Bosley was also civically engaged. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Yeatman Community Development Corporation, the Yeatman Community Health Center and the Fairfax Senior Citizens Center. Alma Jean Bosley was a teacher in the St. Louis Public Schools system. Their positions placed them solidly in the black middle class.

Dabney-Gray stated that as far as she can recall she always sang. She was the youngest of eight Bosley children, and her father, who had a love of music, organized his children into a singing group. She also sang in the choir of her home church, Samaritan United Methodist. At age 9, she formed a singing group with two other girls, but it was not until she performed at her 8th grade graduation from Cole Elementary School that she decided that she wanted to become a professional singer.

At Sumner High School she joined the choir under the directorship of the legendary Kenneth Brown Billups, becoming president of the choir in her senior year. Her fellow choirmates included Ron Townsend and Lamonte McClemore, who went on to form the Fifth Dimension.

Upon graduation from Sumner in 1952, she received a vocal scholarship to Lincoln University. After graduating from Lincoln in 3 ½ years, she toured the country with a quartette called the Vocalaires. Robert Guillaume, who at the time was known as Robert Williams, was an original member of the Vocalaires.

Dabney-Gray suspended her budding music career when she married and started a family, but she never lost her fervor for singing. In 1963, she entered the local Metropolitan Opera auditions. Her loss was ego-deflating, but it only increased her ambition to succeed in the opera world. In 1966, she won first place in the Met auditions and was a three-time winner on the Ted Mack Amateur hour, where she was eventually beat out by a singing dog named Hortense.

Dabney-Gray sang with international opera star Felicia Weathers at Lincoln University, and the two became life-long friends. In 1963, Weathers invited Dabney-Gray to her home base in Munich, Germany to audition and perform.

Dabney-Gray is the sister of long-time 3rd Ward Alderman, Freeman Bosley, Sr. and the aunt of Freeman Bosley, Jr., the first African American mayor of St. Louis. Dabney-Gray had a brief political career as a committeewoman of the 1st Aldermanic ward. She also taught music in the St. Louis Public Schools until her retirement.