Lynn
Martens — dancer, dance teacher, Pilates instructor, small business
owner, mother, grandmother, lifelong devotee of New York City and
singular sensation — died on Friday, August 22, 2025, in her
adopted home of South Burlington, Vt., due to acute complications of
chronic illness. She was 80 years old.
Born
in New York City on December 15, 1944, to first-time parents Marian
Chester Walsh, a schoolteacher, and William Walsh, a physician then
employed by the U.S. Navy, Lynn (who went at times by Lyn or Lynne)
spent her childhood moving around the country in tandem with her
father’s transfers. These eventually led her back to Manhattan and
the Professional Children’s School, where her passion for dance
flourished as she earned her diploma.
To
her mother’s initial consternation, Lynn deferred her enrollment at
NYU to spend a year abroad in Paris. A confirmed Francophile, Lynn
claimed to have read Sartre’s Being and Nothingness at 16.
During her later years she attended a French conversation group in
Burlington.
Back
in New York, Lynn attended NYU for a semester, pursued a dancing
career (including a stint with Paul Taylor’s company), attended
Columbia for a semester, and then put both career and school on hold
to begin a family. Her tenacity triumphed, as it often did, when she
completed her history BA, summa cum laude, at C.W. Post in 1985.
In
late 1967 Lynn met actor Wayne Martens during rehearsals for King
Solomon and Ashmedai, in which she danced and he portrayed the
eponymous demon of lust. Soon thereafter she moved into his Brooklyn
apartment, from which the pair didn’t move until 1977, by which
time they were married and had three children in tow. In the meantime
she spent a summer in Israel, took classes at Columbia, did a lot of
high-quality mothering and helped Wayne build a successful custom
photo lab, Box One Photographic.
The
family settled on Long Island, first in East Norwich, then in
Greenlawn. Lynn, a voracious reader of literary novels and historical
nonfiction, kept the house full of books. By night she enjoyed
listening to jazz LPs. Her wide-ranging cultural and intellectual
curiosity set an irresistible example for her children.
Dance
was the heart of Lynn’s life. She took classes for as long as she
could and taught ballet and jazz for years at various Long Island
studios, most notably the North Shore Studio of Dance.
Lynn’s
politics were strongly progressive. Spurred by the moral fervor of
the anti-war and women’s liberation movements of her youth, she
participated in numerous local and national demonstrations over the
decades, addressing such issues as apartheid, reproductive freedom,
the Iraq war and threats to democracy.
In
the summer of 1995, Lynn realized her long-harbored dream of moving
back to Manhattan. She and her family saw out the century in a
Houston Street apartment that, in later years, Lynn cited as her
favorite among the many homes she’d known. During this period she
discovered, and created a career for herself in, the discipline of
Pilates, well known among professional dancers but then gaining
popular traction.
Pilates
changed everything. When the Houston Street apartment had to be sold,
Lynn found not only the courage but the wherewithal to leave her
long-troubled marriage. She moved first to Washington Heights and
then to Vermont. After working for a year with her daughter, Shannon,
owner of the Pilates Den, Lynn founded her own studio, Absolute
Pilates, where she made her living — and fostered a coterie of
fond, loyal clients — until COVID shutdowns and her own declining
health gradually drew things to a close.
Even
as Alzheimer’s and a string of health emergencies slowed her down,
Lynn continued pursuing the many interests still accessible to her,
including her French group, the NYC-based writing group she’d
participated in for years, and visits with siblings and friends.
Almost until the end, she read the Times and the New
Yorker, listened to jazz, and complained about politics. Above
all, she maintained an ever-curious, often hilarious, reliably
sympathetic presence in the lives of those she loved and who loved
her.
Predeceased
by her parents, Lynn is survived by a devoted cohort of children,
grandchildren and siblings, including her daughter, Shannon Lashua of
Williston, Vt.; sons Matthew and Christopher Martens of Beverly,
Mass., and South Burlington, Vt., respectively; grandchildren Jami
and Emma Lashua of Williston, Vt.; sisters Gail Jennings and Claire
Locke of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Hillsborough, N.C., respectively;
brother William Walsh of Waltham, Vt.; and feline companion Gigi.