Lynn DIMARTINO Shenefield Obituary

Lynn DIMARTINO Shenefield attended Northeast High School in Oakland Park, FL. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Lynn Dimartino Shenefield.

Graduation Year	Class of 1967
Date of Passing	Jan 24, 2012
About	Lynn Shenefield: Mother Goose delighted all with stories Lynn Shenefield 6:23 p.m. EST, February 18, 2012\| By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel Once upon a time, an Oviedo woman discovered a love for storytelling and became Central Florida's "Mother Goose" for countless audiences for 24 years. Lynn Shenefield had colorful costumes and an endless variety of tales and songs that entertained children, nursing-home residents, library groups and families all over Florida. "She loved stories. She loved people and she loved children, their innocence," said her daughter, Jake Haralson. "She sang, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" dozens of times, but she always thought that it might be the first time that a child hears it and she wanted to make it fresh and exciting." Shenefield died Jan. 24 following a five-year battle with breast cancer. She was 62. Born in Newark, N.J., she was the only daughter among four children and her family moved to Fort Lauderdale when she was young. She loved reading, even reading the dictionary for fun. Too often, she was saddled with family chores that left her little time for play. "She said she was educated in the school of hard knocks, where the alma mater was a primal scream," Haralson said. Determined not to have a desk job, she worked for her father's electrical supply company, as a lab tech, in radio broadcast and as a massage therapist. She even once made marble bathtubs. She and her daughter moved to Seminole County in 1985, eventually settling in Oviedo. In 1988, she was injured in a terrible car accident and stopped working as a massage therapist. While recovering, she attended a storytelling event at the Oviedo library and was entranced. She became a professional storyteller and fulfilled a lifelong desire to travel and meet people. Children came to know her as the real Mother Goose and she had 36 costumes to play up her flamboyant persona. "She'd walked into the room, with these great hats, big hoop skirt and big earrings and necklaces," her daughter said. "She was very striking, very colorful." In her tales, she loved adding plot twists or changing the ending. She learned countless stories from others, retelling them in her own style. Her repertoire include dozens of songs, poetry and puppet plays. Shenefield worked for the Orange County library system and offered her stories wherever she could. She appeared at the Oviedo Marketplace, nursing homes and many a festival. "Parents enjoyed her so much and she was perfect for the toddler and pre-school set," said fellow storyteller, Bill Cordell, known as "Mr. Bill." She had been the driving force behind poetry programs and a popular Halloween event for the Orange County library system. "She was just selfless, with a giving attitude," Cordell said. For the last five years, she battled breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. She continued storytelling until the last few weeks of her life, somehow finding the strength to be so animated with the children. She kept her humor too, once enjoying a macabre joke with her daughter, that she wanted an epitaph reading "the goose has been cooked." Shenefield is also survived by a granddaughter and her brothers, Harry DiMartino Jr. of Kissimmee and Rocco DiMartino of Fort Lauderdale. Collison Family Funeral Homes & Crematory, Winter Park, is in charge. llelis@tribune.com or 386-479-1529