M. Lynette Bilbrey Martin

M. Lynette Martin passed away peacefully at her home in Hudson, Ohio, on Friday, January 31, 2025. 

 A celebration of life will begin at 11:30 a.m., on Friday, February 7, 2025, at Emken Linton Funeral Home in Texas City, Texas. Interment will follow at Hayes Grace Memorial Park in Hitchcock, Texas. Visitation is scheduled from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Thursday, February 6, 2025, at Emken Linton. Services will be live-streamed with a link provided on the Emken Linton website.

 Margaret Lynette Bilbrey Martin was born August 27, 1948, in Texas City, Texas, to John D. and Margaret Bilbrey. She played contrabass clarinet in the Texas City High School band and performed with the Stingarettes drill team. Lynette spent weekends and summer breaks at the family’s second home on Lake Ivanhoe, her happy place. In addition to maintaining life-long friendships with many in her TCHS Class of ‘66, Lynette was blessed to grow up with four fun-loving female cousins she affectionately referred to as her Sisties. 

 Lynette was born into a baseball-loving family with several family members playing in the big leagues. She faithfully followed their careers and attended games in person whenever the chance arose. As a season ticketholder, many good times were spent attending minor league baseball and hockey games with friends. 

 Early in her professional career, Lynette excelled in various positions within the banking industry. Then, a job loss due to the savings and loan crisis in the mid 1980s led her to take a chance on a bank liquidation position with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Over her 30-year FDIC career, Lynette assisted in the resolution of failed banks from Hawaii to Connecticut and just about everywhere in between. Many awards and accolades later, Lynette retired in 2018 and relocated to Hudson, Ohio, to realize her dream of being involved in the day-to-day lives of four of her granddaughters. 

 The one word her friends regularly use to describe Lynette is: Crafty. We all thought she could probably crochet blindfolded. She made and gifted hundreds of baby and wedding blankets over the years. She created beautiful custom scrapbooks, jewelry, and reached a whole new level of craftiness with her Cricut. 

 Lynette had many passions including gardening, interior design, and travel. The garden at her Ohio home contains lilies, iris, hydrangeas, peonies, fruit trees, and roses. She spent many happy hours tending to her garden alongside her granddaughters. Lynette’s home was artfully decorated and she loved browsing catalogs to find the perfect piece to complete her design vision. Lynette was a fun-seeking traveler who visited five continents and always had a bevy of friends ready and available to join her next adventure. 

If anyone could slay the triple-negative breast cancer dragon, her friends were confident it would be Lynette. But, alas, it was not meant to be and our beautiful, feisty, red-headed friend is now one of God’s angels. She beat cancer two out of three times, and, if life is a “best-out-of-three” baseball series, then she won. 

Lynette was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her brother John D. Bilbrey III and wife, Laurel; daughters Ali Martin-Scoufield, husband Jason, and granddaughters Sophie, Aubrey, Emilia, and Ruthie; Melissa Fairchild, and Julie Bolner, husband Jeff, and granddaughter Madison. 

 The Martin family wishes to thank the dedicated staff at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Hospice who took amazing care of Lynette over the past 2 years. Donations to breast cancer research or to the American Horticultural Society in Lynette’s memory are appreciated.