Lynette Emery

Lynette Emery died peacefully in Grand Junction on February 19, 2020. She lived most of her life in Denver, teaching art at Graland Country Day School for 25 years and then returning to her first love, landscape design.

Born August 5, 1924, Lynette grew up in Sherburn, Vermont.  She

graduated from Northfield School in Massachusetts and went on to study at the Rhode Island School of Design and Ambler School of Horticulture at Temple University in Pennsylvania.  In 1944, she took a train to visit family friends in Santa Fe and never looked back. The Western landscape and native plants captivated her and led her to Denver where she worked with Ruth Waring and George Kelley at the nascent Denver Botanical Gardens.

After retiring from Graland in 1980, she worked with notable Landscape Architect, Jane Silverstein Reis , before opening her own office in 1989. Some of her landscape drawings reside in the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library. She was a member of St. Andrews Episcopal Church and the Denver Botanic Gardens, a lifelong advocate for Planned Parenthood and a strong supporter of the Denver Art Museum, with a special interest in the native arts.

Lynette and her husband of 50 years, Denver native Philip Washburn Emery, loved to explore the Rockies and spent many a night under starry skies. Never wishing to leave a party, she hung on with love and fierce spirit to the end.  She inspired and expected heartfelt connection with almost everyone she ever met, from her loyal friends to the neighborhood shopkeepers, her former students, her garden design clients and fellow activists. Even with weakened faculties, she spread that intense love and connection to all the staff at Aspen Ridge Alzheimer’s Special Care Center, her final home.

She is survived by three daughters: Olivia Emery and her husband Michael Hassig of Carbondale, CO; Sylvia Emery Wilhelm and her husband Andy Wilhelm of Grand Jct., CO: and Elphie Emery Owen of Camden ME. She also leaves her five grandchildren: Christopher Hassig, Lilah Wilhelm, Mia Wilhelm, Madeline Owen and Henry Owen.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Denver Botanic Gardens, Planned Parenthood or the Douglas Society at the Denver Art Museum.