This is the only school in the East Lyme school district which is named to honor a person. Lillie B. Haynes was a remarkable educator. Her spirit of service to other people inspires our teachers and students to work to make our school an excellent place to learn and grow.
This school is named for Lillie Bennett Haynes who served the children of East Lyme from September, 1922 until June of 1960. Mrs. Haynes symbolizes the dedication to teaching and the affection for pupils that is characteristic of all great teachers. Thus, in a larger sense, this building is a memorial to all instructors who have taught so successfully in the schools of East Lyme.
Lillie B. Haynes was born in Scarboro, Maine on January 22, 1896. She attended what was then the Gorham Normal School from 1917 to 1919, although her actual teaching career began in 1915 in Standish, Maine, in a one room school containing grades one through eight. Her subsequent teaching positions were in Wilton, Connecticut; Gorham, Maine; and Braintree, Massachusetts. In June of 1955, Mrs. Haynes was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from Willimantic State College, Willimantic, Connecticut.
During her long and distinguished career, Mrs. Haynes, in her quietly efficient manner, instructed uncounted numbers of students in the fundamental skills, developed in them an understanding of good citizenship and virtuous behavior. A great and lasting influence for good, the name and work of Lillie Bennett Haynes is memorialized here with the hope that those who follow her will succeed in a similar fashion in the greatest service of all - the teaching of children.
