Kalas Funeral Home & Crematory

Lynne Sinclair (Canwell) Schulz (1942-2020)

Lynne Schulz – beloved wife of the late William Schulz and mother of four adoring boys – died peacefully at her home in Washington, DC, on December 31, 2020, at the age of 78. Her death came exactly 24 years after her own mother passed away on New Year’s Eve in 1996.

Though she lived six decades in the nation’s capital, Lynne hailed originally from the other Washington. A proud daughter of Spokane, she grew up the oldest of six children born to Albert and Marsinah Canwell. Lynne and her siblings were directly descended on Albert’s side from Samuel Fuller, one of the leaders of the Mayflower voyage in 1620. The family lived at the historic Montvale Farm house alongside the Little Spokane River.

In 1959, Lynne was a member of the first 12 th -grade graduating class at Spokane’s St. George’s School, helping start the tradition of seniors walking across the Graduation Bridge that continues today. Lynne was especially proud of being the school’s very first graduate, a position she earned by virtue of the fact that no other student came before “Canwell” alphabetically in the small inaugural class of ’59. After a year at San Diego College for Women (now the University of San Diego) studying fashion and design, Lynne switched gears, moving east to pursue interests in politics and journalism. She worked for the weekly conservative political newspaper Human Events as well as on the staff of Kansas Senator James Pearson. 

It was in Washington where she met and fell in love with Bill Schulz, an aspiring journalist from New York who would later serve as Executive Editor and Vice President of Reader’s Digest. The pair married at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church on Capitol Hill in 1965. Over the next ten years they welcomed four sons, raising them on Capitol Hill and, later, in the same home on Hawthorne Place in the Palisades neighborhood of Washington where Bill and Lynne lived the rest of their lives.

Despite being outnumbered as the only female in the bunch, Lynne ruled the roost at Hawthorne. She was a homemaker nonpareil, a charming hostess, a dazzling cook, and a biting wit. Her hospitality at Hawthorne was most pronounced in the Sunday night family dinners she and Bill long hosted, affairs that grew bigger and more boisterous throughout the years as girlfriends, wives, and grandchildren added to the mix. Their proudest accomplishment was raising their sons well, both by the instruction they imparted and the example they set. Lynne routinely reminded them to cherish and appreciate the years raising their own children – no matter how hectic or frustrating or exhausting they might seem at the time. She recalled her own experience overseeing a seemingly endless parade of carpools, sports practices, school plays, birthday parties, etc., as the happiest and most fulfilling period of her life.

Lynne was preceded in death by her parents and husband, but is survived by sons Bill (Kate), Max (Sandy), Nick (Elise), and Ken (Becky), and 18 grandchildren. She is also survived by siblings Marshall, Christina, Jon, Stephanie, and Geneve, and their families, as well as numerous other close friends and relatives.

Following a funeral Mass at St. Ann’s Catholic Church on Tenley Circle on January 12 – her late husband’s birthday – Lynne will be interred with Bill at Holy Rood Cemetery in Georgetown.

Lynne Sinclair Schulz

Lynne Sinclair Schulz

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