WINDHAM — Lynette Walker Melnichuk passed away peacefully on Friday, July 9, 2021, at Ledgewood Manor in Windham. She was almost 97 years of age. We are very grateful that she was surrounded by loving family at the time of her passing. The family is especially thankful for the wonderful staff at Ledgewood and Compassus Care who lovingly cared for her over these past eighteen months.

Lynette Rose Walker was born August 23, 1924, in Chichester, N.H., the third born of four sisters. Her parents were John and Angie Hall Walker. She was predeceased by her husband Ted Melnichuk and her three beloved sisters, Priscilla Valvano, Joan McCarthy, and Hester Gorecki.

After the Great Depression, Lynette moved with her parents and sisters to her grandparent’s family farm in Clinton, Conn. She attended the Clinton school system and graduated from the Morgan High School in 1942. Lynette married Theodore (Ted) Melnichuk on February 3, 1943, in Branford, Conn.

In the late 1940s, her parents divided the family farm into four house lots where she and her three sisters could start their families. This is where she and Ted built their new home. They then helped her parents buy a small farm in her mom’s home town of Casco, Maine.

Ted and Lynette established a number of small businesses in Clinton. The largest was Shore Motors, a new car dealership. Lynette expertly handled all the bookkeeping for the business as well as being vice president for the American Legion Auxiliary, leader of the Clinton Homemaker Club and volunteering for many family and town events.

Although Lynette never had any children, she was like a mother to her three sisters’ eight children, treating each one as her own. Her love and influence will continue in the generationsshe has impacted throughout her life.

Lynette’s mother Angie was a talented artist and started ceramic painting. Lynette set up a home studio herself. Ted and Lynette would travel back and forth to Maine every other weekend, Lynette trading ceramic molds and supplies with her mom and Ted helping her father, John with the farm work.

In 1962, Ted’s legs were badly injured in a car accident while on a service call. The doctors at the time said he may never walk well again. After a few years of trying to keep their business running, they sold everything and moved to Casco to share the farm with Lynette’s parents who were ready to retire. Eventually, Ted regained nearly full leg functioning.

Lynette took some art classes, grew the ceramic business and also dabbled in mosaic art and watercolors. She was not afraid to get her hands dirty working in the garden or lifting hay bales when needed. She volunteered at many church events, worked the Casco Day ticket booth every year and sang in the church choir for many years.

Lynette was very proud of her Hall family ancestry. She attended the Hall family reunion every year, hand-making gift prizes for attendees coming the farthest, youngest, oldest etc. She loved helping her sisters preserve their family genealogy. Lynette even traveled with her cousin to Switzerland to trace her Walker family roots.

Lynette was a kind and gentle soul who loved purely and unconditionally. She had a great appreciation of beauty and all things created by God. She loved flowers, nature and animals and her many dear friends in Casco.

Auntie Net will be greatly missed by her immediate family, Stan and Sue Gorecki, Jack and Sissy McCarthy, George and Trish Gorecki, Pam Gibson and Pam Butler and Jon and Barbara Valvano. Her many grandnieces and nephews will always remember their sweet Auntie Net with great love, appreciation and affection. Lynette’s legacy of love lives on in all of us.

A graveside service celebrating her life will be held at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021, at the Quaker Ridge Cemetery on Quaker Ridge Road in Casco. Arrangements are in the care of the Hall Funeral Home, 165 Quaker Ridge Road in Casco where family and friends are invited to share on her Tribute Wall at www.hallfuneralhome.net.