Lynn Holloman Fusinato

Lynn Holloman Fusinato passed away Thursday morning, January 11, 2018 in her home in Richardson, Texas surrounded by her loving family. She was 71 years old, having been born March 16, 1946 in Lexington, Mississippi to Miles Edward Holloman and Wilhemina (Billie) Prater Holloman.

She is survived by her husband Robert (Bob) Fusinato, daughter Carolyn Fusinato of Irving, Texas, son Robert (Robbie) Fusinato of Richardson, Texas, brother Miles Edward Holloman of Yazoo City, Mississippi, sister Carol Holloman Peña of Alice, Texas, and nephew Niles Peña of Alice, Texas.

Funeral services are being provided by Ted Dickey West. However, there will not be a public viewing. We plan to have an informal memorial at our home in Richardson, Texas with friends and family at a later time yet to be determined. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers. If you want to honor her memory, the family asks that you dedicate a donation in her name to the charity of your choice in lieu of flowers.

Lynn graduated from Lexington High School in Lexington, Mississippi as Valedictorian in 1964. She earned a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from Mississippi State University in 1968 and a Masters of Science in Chemistry from the University of Tennessee in 1970. She then settled in San Antonio, Texas to be near her mother and sister. There she met and married Navy Lt. Bob Fusinato. She accompanied Bob as he was assigned to a ship based in Florida. They added their first child, Carolyn, to their growing family just after a 6-month Mediterranean cruise.

Her husband Bob left the Navy soon afterward. They moved to Gainesville Florida where Bob obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering. As a degreed professional Lynn worked during most of our family situations. Indeed she worked in a chemistry lab when the family first moved to Gainesville. However she decided that working in such a lab where exposure to carcinogenic chemicals or radiation was too risky. So Lynn obtained a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Florida. Lynn and Bob both completed their degrees in 1979. They moved back to Texas settling in Flower Mound where they both found jobs with Texas Instruments in the Dallas area.

A few years later, they added their second child, Robbie, to the family. Lynn decided to leave her job to devote herself to raising their two children. Meanwhile, she pursued a Masters in Computer Science from the University of North Texas which she completed in 1987 just as her son was approaching six years old. She then went to work for Ericsson, a Swedish telecom company with development facilities in Richardson. Lynn liked to travel and enjoyed multiple temporary assignments that took her to company facilities in Sweden. She even brought her son and daughter over on one of them so they would gain international perspectives.

Her love of her close knit, extended Holloman family and her interest in making “living histories” to remember them by took her and the family on many trips to visit relatives in Mississippi and various other states across the U.S. She enjoyed planning family vacations in their camper that took them around the U.S. often to National Parks. After the children graduated, she enjoyed an Alaskan Cruise, a trip to Hawaii, and a trip to Paris, Vienna, Venice and Rome with her husband.

Tracing family roots became one of Lynn's passions. Retirement afforded her the opportunity to devote more time and travel to it. Lynn and Bob made many trips to Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia visiting courthouses, local libraries, and state archives to find original source material about her relatives, going back to the Revolutionary War with one branch.

Because of her knowledge of computer research and innate emphasis on details, she became quite an expert in the field of genealogy and shared her knowledge with many people – even those peripherally related. Indeed she helped husband Bob trace his family roots in Europe and arranged to visit towns where his father was born and where he grew up.

To her, genealogy was more than just family trees. It was also about the stories and the lives of her ancestors. She has written a number of carefully researched papers which she shared with others. She especially enjoyed comparing notes with other family genealogists at the “Holliman Family History gathering” in Smithfield, Virginia in 2016.

Lynn was a very giving and loving person to her family and friends. She had so much knowledge in so many areas people came to her for answers. On one family vacation, when we passed by a car pulled over to the side of the road by a policeman, her preschool aged son asked, “Why was the man pulled over?” She said, “Probably because he was speeding.” To her surprise her son responded with, “How fast was he going?” She was stumped by that one. But generally, if she did not know the answer, she would research the information and find answers for them. She was always willing to share and help others with what she knew. Her family and friends regarded her as a kind and delightful person to be around.

Although her hobbies and pursuits were largely intellectual, she was no slouch in the garden or in the kitchen. We looked forward to her home grown tomatoes, blackberries and figs in the Spring, to her excellent pies at thanksgiving, and her Christmas cookies during the Holidays.

We loved her so much, but cancer took her at a relatively early age. She will be missed by all who knew her.