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Hometown Living At Its Best 17
“I want to teach something,” said Lynn about
her stories. Whether they teach about “sharing,
helping, apologizing, or acceping someone who
is different,” Lynn hopes her stories encourage
children to engage with people and nature.
and built a street-legal dune buggy.
Later, he built a Porsche using the
best parts he could find from two or
three old ones. “He drove that car to
Georgia Tech where he was going to
school. I said to him, ‘Sterling, this is
crazy. That car will never make it.’ I
followed him all the way there.” She
laughed. “He drove that car for about
five more years.”
Lynn envisioned her son’s search
for parts and his creative process.
“For the story, I made it a go-cart,
since that was a much simpler
machine for a mouse to make.” She
smiled. “With the story on paper, it
seemed to say, ‘What are you going
to do now?’ I don’t do anything
with art, so I began looking for an
illustrator.” For two years Lynn
talked to different artists, but none
seemed the right fit for this particular
book. And then a conversation and
an invitation led her to the perfect
person. It was almost as if the dots
that connected her path to Mrs. Polly
Rushton had been were sprinkled
with fairy dust. “I’d just met Truett
Andrew at church, and I said, ‘If
you're ever up my way, stop by, and
we'll have a cup of tea together.’ It
wasn't many days before she called
to say she was on her way some place
and had to pass by my house. Of
course, I invited her to stop by.”
Over cups of hot tea, the
conversation turned to Lynn’s search
for an illustrator for the children’s
book she had written. “Truett
immediately said, ‘Call Miss Polly,’”
as she was affectionately called. “I
had no idea who she was, but I called
her. She said, ‘Well, why don’t you
come over, and we’ll talk about it.’
I did, and she said, ‘Just leave your
story, and I’ll see what I can do.’ A
few days later, she called and said,
‘Come see what I’ve done.’” Lynn
smiled broadly. “That was really fun.”
Everything with Miss Polly was fun.
Lynn’s first book was entitled,
Eugene and his Go-Kart Machine: A
Tale of a Creative Mouse. With the
perfect illustrator, more stories were
quick to follow: Eugene’s Mistake at
the Garden Gate: The Resolve of a
Creative Mouse, and Eugene Meets
Bojean: The Acceptance of a Creative
Mouse.
“I was doing a book signing
when someone walked in and said,
‘Happy Birthday, Miss Polly.’” That
was the first time Lynn learned that
her illustrator was ninety years old.
For Miss Polly’s next birthday, Lynn
threw her a party at her house. “A
friend of hers, who was an excellent
pianist, played for the birthday.
I turned around, and there my
husband was up dancing with Miss
Polly!”
Three more of Lynn’s books in
the Eugene series would be illustrated
by Miss Polly. “I had given her the
fifth one to do when she passed away
in 2014,” said Lynn. The incredible
Miss Polly Rushton was ninety-two.
Lynn’s next two books, Eugene,
The Mouse, at the Big Farmhouse:
The Contentment of a Creative
Mouse, and Eugene Fishing &
Wishing: The Reasoning of a
Creative Mouse, were illustrated by
the talented artist Pharis Davis. When
she got ready for the next book to be
illustrated, “Pharis was having some
health problems and unable to do it. I
had to find another illustrator.”
At the same time, Lynn also
began a new series she based on
the lives of people she knew with
disabilities. Ever the teacher, she
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