Lynette Anderson Thomas

A Licensed Practical Nurse, Lynette gave 33 years of dedicated service to patients in the New York City Hospitals of Bellevue, Lennox Hill, Mount Sinai, and Beth Israel. In June 1979, when a budding flutist was pushed onto the E train tracks severing her arm, Lynette was a lauded member of the Bellevue team that performed all-night surgery and successfully reattached the limb. This was one of her proudest professional moments.

Lynette was born to Pearl Ifill and George Anderson on October 5, 1934, in Buxton Village, in the former British Guiana. She attended St. Augustine Anglican School, Tutorial High School, and the Carnegie School of Home Economics, after which she worked as an expert dressmaker. But she dreamed of becoming a nurse - a dream deferred due to her mother’s death when she was a teenager. Lynette seized the opportunity to pursue her nursing studies when she immigrated to the United States in 1967. Through night school, working double shifts in hospitals and nursing homes, grit, and determination, she lifted herself up from nurses’ aide to LPN while focused on the welfare of her six children.

She was a strong proponent of education. “You must go to school” was her mantra to people of all ages. She demonstrated her love for family and friends by sharing her joy of cooking and by showing up, regardless of the distance, to provide support in their times of joy, grief, or sorrow.

In retirement, she travelled extensively, exploring other cultures in Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Peru, Panama, the Philippines, and Senegal. And, consistent with her love of learning, she took swimming lessons at her neighborhood recreational center, creative writing classes at her church, and piano lessons that culminated in a recital at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

To the very end, Lynette cultivated an extensive network of loving family and friends, young and old, who enjoyed her indomitable spirit, amazing hospitality, and her jovial wit - telling jokes with a wink of the eye.

She is survived by her children Joan, Dawn, Audrey, Paul and Tracey, son-in-law Jack Gaspar, and grandchildren Taylor Gaspar, Reginald Mousa Touré, and Sybil Maimouna Touré. She was predeceased by her son Reginald Thomas.

Buxtonians in particular will remember her unwavering support to her birthplace, its school children, and St. Augustine Anglican church where she was baptized and confirmed.

A memorial service will be held at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan on Sunday January 22, 2023 at 2pm.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday January 21, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

A Luncheon in Celebration of Her Life

Family & Friends Welcome

When: Saturday January 21, 12 Noon

Where: Glen Terrace - 5313 Avenue N

Brooklyn, N.Y. 11234

Donations in Lynette’s memory may be made to the Buxton-Friendship Heritage Fund, Inc., 454 Vermont Street, Brooklyn, NY 11207