Lilliantyne "Tyna" Fields

1930 - 2020

Lilliantyne "Tyna" Fields

Lilliantyne Fields, known to her many friends and loved ones as "Tyna," passed away on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. She died of cardiac arrest after a short illness brought on by atrial fibrillation that was unable to be treated due to restrictions in health care because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tyna Williams was born on October 26, 1930 to Blanche Utterback and Fred Williams in El Reno, Oklahoma. After spending many of her formative years moving from place to place as her extended family sharecropped, she returned to El Reno and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School (the only school for colored students in El Reno, K-12. It closed in 1968 after desegregation closed the black schools). Tyna remained active with reunions of Booker T. Washington High School until her death.

Educators at B.T. Washington, especially Dr. Cavannah Clark, saw great promise in Tyna and encouraged her to go to college. She attended Langston University, now the only remaining historically black college in Oklahoma. There she majored in Biology and joined the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She was voted "best personality" and "most brilliant" in her senior class and graduated magna cum laude in 1955.

During the time she was at school, she met Theron Q. Hooks who was to become her first husband. After graduation, she moved to Wichita, Kansas to enroll in a Medical Technology program and become a licensed Medical Technologist. Theron moved to Wichita in 1956 and began to work for The Boeing Company. The two of them reconnected and married in 1957. They had two children Laneyse and Quinton Hooks.

While her children were young, Tyna returned to school and attended Wichita State University to earn her Master's degree. After graduation in 1965, she became one of four black teachers in Wichita Public Schools who were allowed to teach above the elementary school age.

In 1968, Theron was transferred away from the Wichita, Kansas Boeing facility to Everett, Washington. Tyna and her family moved to suburban Seattle where she immediately found a position as a Biology Professor at Shoreline Community College. The family joined First AME Church in Seattle where Tyna remained an active member until her death. Theron and Tyna divorced in 1971.

In 1973, Tyna married Frank Fields, Jr. They were married for 46 years, until Frank's death in January 2019. Tyna and Frank had an active life together, traveling the United States and the world. Tyna continued to teach and returned to school, earning her Ph.D. in 1984. Her research explored finding ways to help "non-traditional students" succeed when they are accepted into college - students whose schools and backgrounds did not provide a strong science foundation. She was studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education for economically disadvantaged and minority students long before it became an acronym. All her life, she embodied her belief that, "Public education has to work for all students."

In 1991 Tyna retired from teaching and moved to Oklahoma City with Frank where they purchased a home around the corner from her high school mentor, Dr. Clark. They became active with Avery AME Church. There they opened their home and hosted friends and family from far and wide. Tyna took a position with the Tobacco-Free Kids Oklahoma project & had a second mini career of several years.

In 2011, and Tyna and Frank downsized and moved back to Seattle. They took up residence in an independent living facility where they both made many new friends and participated in outings, classes and trips.

Tyna was instrumental in instituting the Metropolitan Seattle Sickle Cell Program, which went on to become statewide. She was recognized by the United Nations for her work as she convinced large institutional investors in Seattle to disinvest from apartheid South Africa. She was an avid bridge player. She had a beautiful soprano voice and sang in various church choirs and choral groups. She taught Bible school. She helped lead the Emergency Feeding Program through the Church Council of Greater Seattle. Tyna loved to feed everyone and fill her home with people. She played it forward and mentored countless young people through her working career, her church and anywhere she met people. She gave good advice in a gentle, though sometimes steely tone. She was a meticulous and fabulous dresser.

Tyna had a long, deep and abiding faith. She believed in the study of scripture and daily scriptural meditation. She knew that her death, when it came, would be an event, but not her destination. She found infinite comfort in the arms of a loving God.

Surviving family include her children Quinton Hooks and Laneyse Hooks, Laneyse's husband, Richard Marchi and Frank's children Frank Michael Fields and Michelle Fields, Michelle's daughter La'Shelle Bryant Chandler, her husband Mike Chandler and her family. Tyna had many half-siblings and scores of nieces and nephews. She also had the loving attitude that "marriage brings families together, but divorce doesn't have to take them apart." So, she was very proud of the grandchildren and great grandchildren that the twists of modern family life blessed her with. Friends - Tyna had many, many friends.

Due to the pandemic, there was no formal memorial service for Tyna. Memorial gifts in lieu of flowers can be made to First AME South Church (https://www.fameseattle.org/) or Langston University (https://www.langston.edu/gift-giving).

In addition, a celebration of all things Tyna is tentatively planned to take place in Seattle in October. The 26th of October 2020 would have been Tyna's 90th birthday.

Please sign Tyna's online guestbook at www.Legacy.com