Lynn

My parents, Bettie and Perry Duryea, were living in my father's home town of Montauk NY during my mother's pregnancy, but she was visiting her parents in Westchester Co. NY @ the time of my birth. As the story goes (no one is left with whom I can confirm) my mother and grandmother Nappy (nicknamed from Little Napolean - she was a feisty 5' woman who never wore pants) were on the train to NYC to buy a couch when my mother's water broke. I was born @ Columbia Presbyterian hospital in upper Manhattan; I don't know if that was the plan all along or simply the closest hospital. In any event, I was three days old before I was named. My father was so convinced I would be a boy that my parents hadn't discussed girl names. Hard to believe. My father happened to see Lynn on a map of MA and thought it sounded good with Duryea. Thankfully I agree. I have no middle name, although I used to consider taking one. Growing up in Montauk, a very small town in those days, no one else was named Lynn. I thought for a long time I had a very unusual name.

-Lynn, Boone NC and Deer Isle, ME, USA