Lorraine F. Yakush

Lorraine Frances Yakush, 1931–2024  

Lorraine Yakush, 93, of Trumbull, Connecticut, departed this Earth on August 30. Born in Brooklyn on July 10, 1931 to first-generation parents of Italian and Irish descent, she was drawn to art from an early age. In 1948, she graduated from Bayside High School in Queens, where she met George Adam Yakush. They married in 1952. Within a few years they began working weekends and nights to build a home in Trumbull, then a community of small dairy and fruit farms. They moved into it in 1960. She lived there until her death, surrounded by paintings, drawings, pastels, and prints of family. They are her life’s work. She is survived by a sister, Margarete Saunders of Bedminster, New Jersey; children George, Mary, Teddy, and Matthew Yakush; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

The daughter of Anthony and Mary Polce Canon, she was predeceased by her husband in 1992 and by her sister Theresa Canon-Waage in 2023.

She studied painting and drawing at the Art Students League of New York. While raising four children she attended night classes at the University of Bridgeport (B.S., education, 1968, M.S., art education, 1977). She carried insights about the nature of creativity from her first job as a special education teacher to later teaching positions at Trumbull High School and Wilton High School. She taught ceramics for the partially sighted, recruited students to help adult learners try their hands at studio art, counseled foreign exchange students, and advised graduating seniors who aspired to careers in art. She retired in 1990. Restless without students, for another decade she taught adult education in Wilton and studio art for community outreach programs including the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport.

Service: Monday, Sept. 9, 11 am at Christ Church Tashua Parish, 5170 Madison Ave., (christchurchtrumbull.org) followed by burial at Long Hill Burial Ground, 53 Middlebrooks Ave., both in Trumbull, CT 06611

Arrangements in care of : Cyril F. Mullins Funeral Home, 399 White Plains Rd., Trumbull, CT 06611 (www.mullinsfh.com)

In lieu of flowers please consider contributing to the Aspetuck Land Trust, P.O. Box 444, Westport, CT 06881 (www.aspetucklandtrust.org.)

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