_Uriah C.(Comfort) COY _+
_Clarence Eugene COY __________|
| |_Abigail CHAMPLIN ______+
|
|--C. Lynn COY
|
| _Anthony ROBERTSON _____
|_Mary Jane (Jennie) ROBERTSON _|
|_Mary E. ROBERTSON _____
[1]
Lynn was born in Chicago at at the time his family were living at 636W. 63rd St, it shows on the birth certificate.
When Lynn was a boy in Iola, about 12 years old, he and his friendswere playing near the railroad and Lynn was accidentally run over by atrain. It injured his arm and back. He was not permantally disabledbut it left a terible scar on his arm and his back was never right. Atthe time they were in Iola Kansas. The year aound 1900 -1.
As a young man growing up in Iola he was very studious andhard-working. He always held a job in addition to going to schoolwhen he reached the employable age. Although his parents were probablynot that well off, it was the thing to do in those days, just as it istoday.
We have an interesting letter in our possession that Lynn wrote to hisfather in 1907. Then when his parents moved to Chicago, Lynn wasallowed to finish the school year in Iola and he continued to go toschool and hold a job. I suspect at that time Clarence's sister wasliving in his house with her husband George Burnet. At the same timeUriah and Abigail were with them, as they had sold their farm.
Clarence and Jennie had gone to Chicago to reestablish themselves andlet dad, (Lynn) have that last school year in Iola. Then when thatmove was made, Clarence sold the house at 404 Buckeye to hisbrother-in-law George Burnet. Uriah passed away in 1909.
Lynn went to Chicago toward the end of 1907. He continued to hold ajob and go to finish his last year of High School in Chicago. Workinglate at night also made him sleepy and one day just before graduationhe fell asleep in class. The teacher embarassed him so much he walkedout of class and never went back for his diploma. So Lynn never wentto College although in a letter to his father he indicated that he wasplanning on going to Northwestern. He never seemed to regret the lackof a college education in later years simply because he went to theArt Institute right after High School. That would have made his entryinto the Institute in 1908.
Except for two months he did not work when going to the Art Institutebut took that training and paid for it out of his savings that he hadaccumulated through jobs during high school.
He got out of the institute in about 1915 and WWI was about tobegin..He studied both art and sculting at the Institute and when hefinished he was given a job of working directly for Loredo Taft. Soon the South side of Chicago, and in closer proxmity to where he wasliving, he got a great background and even worked on those largestatures that fill Grant Park.
Those were Loredo Taft works...but dad did a lot of work on them. Wehave a picture of him on a scaffolding at work on a large sculpturedfigure of a horse.
As Dad tells it in a 1942 letter to Lynn Jr..."during the first wararound 1917, I was working at sculpture and decided to go to New Yorkfor the winter and go to school for an advanced course. I climbeddown off the scaffold and told my boss what I was going to do. He wasflabbergasted on such short notice, but nevertheless wished me luckand gave me a bonus of $25.00 when I quit.". " Got to New York ononly a few dollars because I went with several cars of horses on anexpress train. Changing trains at Buffalo I got on the wrong trainadn got separated from the horses but the conductor let me ride on mypass anyhow."
As soon as I landed in New York I went to the Masonic employmentbureau and got a job within half an hour after I got there. Had to orelse I wouldn't eat very long. Looked up an old friend who was there,Franck C. Wamsley and roomed with him for a day or so. I was in NewYork just three days. Spent the whole time walking around the citywith the exception of one subway ride when I went over to Newark, NewJersey. Three days was enough, I got homesick. Couldn't take it. Goton the train and started home. Stopped a day in Washington D.C. andspent that walking around. Money running low so got on the train andcame back to Chicago. The old Post Office job looked good from theoutside NOW, but I couldn't go back so had to look for something elsetill they decided to accept my application. Thus the time waiting wasspent working in a cafeteria. I carried dishes, and worked for acranky old woman who was always scolding me and bawling me out. Ikept thinking boy if onlly my reinstatement would come through, I'dtell here plenty. Finally it did and I went around and told her offwhen I got my pay. Then I got back in the post office and stayed forthe duration.
While his first love was pure sculting of heads and figures...he hadto commercialize himself and eventually go into industrial scultpturebecause there just was not enough private commissions available tomake a living. So that was the beginning of his career.
Lucile was actually Lynn's second wife. He married a Telka who passedaway at a young age. Telka had a daughter, ADELE Janis from a previousmarriage. Adele grew up and married Wm. N. Lambert. 6-11-46 and livedin Pt. Pleasant, NJ. Through the years, Lynn kept up a correspondencewith her. After Lynn passed away, Lynn Jr. visited Adele and herhusband and brought them a plaster bust of TELKA that Lynn had madeat one time when he and Telka were married. They were a very charmingcouple and they were very pleased that I gave them the sculpted bustof her mother..
For the next 35 years he had a sucessful career in Chicago and waswidely known in bot the art and advertising circles. His offices wereat 43 E. Ohio for many years and he was forced to move to 100 E.Ohio...then over on Ontario St. with Walter Graham...and eventually hem oved to North Wabash where he finally closed his doors and retiredfrom business in the early 50's. As I recall Dad at that point wasabout 62 years old.
Then came the divorce and after C. Lynn remarried, he moved toWenatchee Washington, and continued to do some sculturing and hadseveral figures in private collections. One was a bronze bust of thefounder of the Wenatchee Daily World and the bust is in their mainoffice even today, 1998 is in the main office of the newspaper. Dadwas cremated and his remains are in a mausoleum in Wenatchee alongwith his third wife Ruth.