LYNN TWITTY

Former superintendent of Sikeston Public Schools Lynn Twitty, 87, of Chateau Girardeau, died Monday, Feb. 10, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center.

Twitty died from injuries received in a five-vehicle accident Jan. 21 on the Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot.

Twitty was born Feb. 17, 1909, in Washington, Ind., son of James Dwight and Goldie Alexandria McCord Twitty. He and Miriam Frances Jones were married May 18, 1935. She died Feb. 16, 1963.

He was superintendent at Sikeston 20 years, retiring in 1971. His education career began in 1934 when he was hired as a teacher at Kewanee, served as principal and then superintendent. He then was superintendent at Lilbourn Schools from 1939-50, taking a leave to serve with the U.S. Marines from 1942-46.

Twitty had served as president of Missouri State High School Activities Association, Missouri State Teachers Association, and Missouri Association of School Administrators.

He was vice president of the Missouri Congress of Parents and Teachers and served on the executive committee for the Central Midwestern Regional Educational Laboratory. He was also a member of the Advisory Council to the President of the American Association of School Administrators.

Twitty wrote articles for professional magazines and the Sikeston newspaper. In 1966 he was selected by the U.S. Office of Education and the State Department to be on a 10-member team which conducted a six-week study of the Soviet Union and its satellites and Western European countries.

He was selected by three Missouri governors to serve on various committees and to receive awards.

The city of Sikeston honored him as Man of the Year, and he received the Alumni Award of Merit from Southeast Missouri State University in 1968. The Missouri Department of Education named him a Pioneer in Education in 1985 for his contributions to public education.

Twitty was a member of First United Methodist Church in Sikeston.

Survivors include two brothers, John Twitty of Rolla, James Twitty of Lilbourn; two sisters, Virginia Twitty of Cape Girardeau, and Marietta Whitworth of Sikeston.

He was preceded in death by a daughter, two brothers and a sister.

His body was donated to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel in Sikeston. The Rev. James A. Sanderson will officiate.

Friends may call at the chapel Wednesday from 12:30 p.m. to service time.