A retired Ypsilanti high school art teacher, Lynne has inspired numerous artistic endeavors. The Ypsilanti student artwork featured on banners around Ypsilanti was part of a district-wide exhibit selected to go to Washington D.C. to be displayed at the US Department of Education. Unfortunately, the exhibit had to be canceled because of the pandemic. Lynne spearheaded large wall murals which depict little-known African American history in Ypsilanti.
The first mural portrays the Rev. Henry P. Jacobs, an African American renaissance man who escaped slavery, settled in Ypsilanti, founded a Baptist church, and a school for Black children, and became a senator and a doctor. The second mural portrays women pioneers in Ypsilanti. The third mural features the Underground Railroad and its connection to Ypsilanti.
With community collaboration in mind, Lynne often reaches out to other artists and community
members to expand the scope of her projects. A partnership with artist and instructor Mark Tucker of
the University of Michigan resulted in Ypsilanti high school students working with University of
Michigan students on community-based art projects that were part of the parades for Ypsi Glow, Ann
Arbor FesiFools parade, and Grand Rapids “Art Prize three years in a row.
Lynne’s art students planned a peace march on Martin Luther King Day led by one of Rosa Parks’s
granddaughters Rhea McCauley. The students created a 6-foot sculpture of Fredrick Douglass, with
students reading the exact speech Douglass had read in Ypsilanti 100 years earlier.
As a result of her passion for the arts, education and community Lynne has received numerous
awards and recognitions: Exemplary Education Endeavors 2016 Award from the Ann Arbor Area
Chamber of Commerce; The Mercedes Wauddy Humanitarian Award from the Ypsilanti Community
Schools. In 2017, Lynne received the DTE Foundation Educator of the year award and the Tedx
YDLTalk. In 2022, she was awarded the community educator award from The Parkridge
Summerfest Joe Dulin Day Committee and the “People in Organizations Making a Difference,”
honored by State Representative Ronnie Peterson.
Lynne has a degree from Howard University, Washington DC in Art/Art Education. She did graduate
studies in art education at Wayne State University, Detroit MI, and has a degree in business
management from Davenport College of Business, Grand Rapids, MI.