Lynne Ellen Fisher

Lynne Fisher (née Wilson) passed away unexpectedly but peacefully in her sleep at her Lawrence, Pa. home on July 23, 2025. She was 76 years old but kept an irrepressible youthful spirit throughout her storied life.

Lynne was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. to William Blair Wilson and Grace Ellen Wilson (née Vierling, later Roe). She grew up on a serene hillscape on Munntown Road in Eighty Four, Pa. alongside first best friends and playmates, her older brother Tim and younger brother Billy. She was a 1967 graduate of the former Monongahela High School and received a BA from Robert Morris University.

Thirsty to see the world, Lynne joined the Peace Corps at age 20 to launch her independence on an international level. She worked in Barbados before being assigned to Kenya, where she taught secretarial skills to Arab girls and women in the city of Mombasa. Facing attitudes that women didn't belong in the workplace, Lynne lobbied the Peace Corps and the local community to gain support for the job training program she created that was, in that time and place, very progressive.

She met her first husband, Bob Fraley, on a beach in Mombasa and not long after joined him on a boat from Africa to camp and hitchhike through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and Greece before reaching Paris and heading back to Pennsylvania to get married. They lived in Pasadena, Calif. before they both entered the Peace Corps to live and teach in Jamaica. In Kingston, Lynne bore their daughter.

Lynne was living in California when she married Richard Fisher, with whom she had two sons. They raised the kids on the sleepy island city of Alameda by a beach overlooking the San Francisco skyline. They had a family ski boat and camped at every lake worth water skiing on in the Golden State. She spent more than 20 years on Shell Gate Road before relocating back to Washington County, Pa. to be near her mother for the last years of Grace's life.

Lynne spent some 40 years as the Sales Director for General Anesthetic Services and steadily attended many medical conferences across the United States and Europe.

Lynne loved meeting new people, live music, hosting parties and bringing people together. She loved to have a good time and to see other people have a good time. She was the life of the party and could bring people to tears with laughter.

Lynne is survived by her brothers and sisters-in-law, William and Sandra Wilson and Timothy and Sylvia Wilson; her children Malaika, Frank and Joe; her daughters-in-law Heather and Emily; her son-in-law Dana; and her grandchildren, Franky, Mavis, Jack, Marygrace, Bailey and Abigail. She is further survived by her Aunt Jessie Vierling, her nieces Kay Lynn, Kimberly, Emily and Natalie and their families, her nephew Lee, her cousins, her ex-husbands, and many good friends.

She was a devoted mother, an excellent grandma, a loving sister, a cool aunt, a proud American, a devout Christian, a loyal friend, a smart businesswoman, and a generous tipper.

Generosity was one of her defining qualities; she would give you the shirt off her back if you complimented it. She spoiled her children and grandchildren with boxes of gifts and treats and practical objects nearly every time she saw them. She was also just a little bit naughty. Bored out of her mind at the height of pandemic restrictions, she crossed state lines to find booze for her friends, unsolicited, even though she no longer drank herself. She got away with it a couple times.

Unfortunately for those who love her, she had a bad ticker and it gave out overnight on a balmy summer Wednesday. Her children will miss her tremendously and feel she's gone far too soon. A thousand years wouldn't have been enough.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, Aug.16 from 10am to noon at 2828 Washington Road, McMurray, PA 15317.