Obituary — Dorothy Zimmerman

Nov 15th, 2012 | By | Category: 2012, Issue, Obituaries

Dorothy Wynne Zimmerman, 87, of Lincoln, died Nov. 5. She was an emeriti professor of English.

Zimmerman was born on Sept. 6, 1925 in Mason City, Iowa. She was raised in Hays, Kan., and attended the University of Kansas. At KU, Zimmerman met her husband, Edward John Zimmerman. They married on the last day of final exams during Dorothy’s sophomore year. She picked her own flowers from a nearby field and received all A’s in her classes.

The Zimmermans received doctorates at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Dorothy in English and Ed in physics.

In 1951, Ed accepted a teaching position at the University of Nebraska. Dorothy also started at NU that same year as a lecturer. She retired about 40 years later as a full professor in the UNL Department of English.

Among her distinguished publications were editions of George Sand’s “The Country Waif,” and “Life in Alaska,” the autobiography of her pioneering aunt, May Wynne Lamb. She co-edited and wrote for “French Women Authors,” a collection of 52 critical essays that is a library standard.

She is survived by her daughter, Ann, and son-in-law, Philippe Lucas, and their three children, Paul, Alice, and Marc of Paris; her daughter, Mary, of Evanston, Ill.; her brother, Robert Wynne of Boston, her sister, Gwen, and brother-in-law, Don Tilley, of Lincoln, and their children, Michael and Michele.

A memorial service is planned for the summer. Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home is handing arrangements. Condolences can be left at lincolnfh.com.

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