Lynne Fazio Silkman

Naples, Italy. Lynne Fazio Silkman (73) died on October 11, 2025, of cardiac arrest following surgery to repair a broken femur suffered in a fall while on vacation with her husband, Richard, in Naples, Italy.

Lynne was born on January 26, 1952, in Pittsburgh, PA to Col. Vincent Felix Fazio and Helen Spardy Fazio. Lynne’s childhood was spent all over the world, following her Dad to Germany, Texas, Kansas, Washington, D.C, Cincinnati, and Okinawa – then back to Mt. Lebanon, PA where she graduated from high school. While in high school, she worked part-time for Bobby Brooks as a model and fashion representative.

Her modeling and strong sense of fashion earned her a scholarship in fashion design from Bobby Brooks at Purdue University, but after a year she switched majors to Art History, graduating in three-years. While at Purdue, she spent time on Koinonia Farm, a community farm outside of Americus, Georgia, founded by farmer and biblical scholar Clarence Jordan and Millard Fuller. Koinonia went on a few years later to become Habitat for Humanity. This experience helped shape her strong faith. While at Purdue, she also met her future husband, Richard, and the two were married on August 31, 1973. A day later, she accompanied him to New Haven, CT, where he had been accepted into the PhD program in economics at Yale University.

It did not take Lynne long to find her niche at Yale. In four years there, Lynne started as an assistant at the sales desk of the Yale Art Gallery, moving up to assistant to the curator of European Art, then to managing rights and reproductions for Yale University (in the year of the country’s bicentennial, where the use of Yale’s Trumbulls were sought by everyone from Burger King to the Smithsonian) then finally to the assistant to the director of the Paul Mellon Center for British Art, where she oversaw the last year of construction of Louis Kahn’s magnificent building.

In the fall of 1977, Lynne sacrificed an acceptance into Yale’s graduate program in graphic design to accompany her husband to SUNY Stony Brook, where he had accepted a position on its faculty. It was the first of many sacrifices Lynne would make for her family. At Stony Brook, as at Yale, her talents stood out. After her first two children were born, Lynne was recruited, first, as the assistant to the noted New York art critic and director of Stony Brook’s art gallery, Laurence Alloway, and then as the director of that gallery when Mr. Alloway stepped down.

Lynne moved to Yarmouth, Maine in late 1983 when her husband took a job on the faculty at USM. Here, for the first time in her life, the “army brat” set down roots. She applied the same commitment and passion that she had given to her work plus a fathomless reservoir of love to raising a family, which expanded with the birth of a third child, and to keeping their 1792 home standing. Lynne was very active in the local Catholic Church – a regular at daily mass – and a friend to all who knew her. She had a gentle and kind soul that always sought and brought out the best in people.

After the kids left for college, Lynne and her husband moved to Pine Point where she loved the beauty of the ocean and all it had to offer. Like many things in her life, she turned that beauty into art in the form of jewelry design using sand dollars and other shells from the ocean, painting and photography. More importantly, Lynne put her faith to good use over the next 15 years as a eucharistic minister at Mercy Hospital and as a hospice volunteer. She had an inner strength that brought peace and comfort to all those she helped.

In addition to her family, her faith and her love of art and beauty, her fourth great love was Italy. Italy was in her blood, both figuratively and literally. While in her 50’s, Lynne reconnected with family from across Italy, and with their help, assembled four generations of papers to enable her to qualify for Italian citizenship. She was so proud to be able to extend that privilege to her children, each of whom now has dual citizenship.

The last five years have not been easy for Lynne. A diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma in 2019 led to a stem cell transplant at Dana-Farber and follow-on drug treatments from which she never fully recovered physically. Her indomitable spirit and boundless love sustained her these last few years as her body gradually began to fail.

Lynne is survived by her husband of 52 years, Richard; by her son, Ross of Richmond, VA and his three children, Teya, Lena and Anna Kiko; by her daughter, Lee, and her husband James Trettin of Lompoc, CA and their four children, Aaron, William, Callie and Julia; and by her daughter, Leslie, and her husband Mason James of Dallas, TX.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 am on Monday, November 24th at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Portland. Internment will follow immediately afterwards in New Calvary Cemetery, South Portland.

You may offer your condolences and sign Lynne’s online quest book by visiting www.jonesrichandbarnes.com

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Habitat for Humanity.