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Lynch wed at Municipal Auditorium during home expo

By Carmina Danini
Express-News Staff Writer

Irene Coker Lynch, 98, who died Thursday in Rockport, was one of the few women in San Antonio who could say she was married at Municipal Auditorium.

She was 19 when she and David Lee Lynch Sr., 22, exchanged vows on the stage of the auditorium Sept. 21, 1928.

The ceremony was the climax of the Home Exposition, held that week at the auditorium so consumers could "study the home industry and home development," the San Antonio Evening News reported.

More than 90 businesses with exhibits at the exposition are "preparing elaborate gifts for the couple and will be on display," the Evening News said.

The bride's bouquet was from the Texas Landscape Co.; the wedding cake was provided by the Colonial Cake Co.

A photographer was present, too, but all the photos he took were destroyed, said Sharon Denard of Blanco, a granddaughter.

"My grandmother was thrilled they had won the contest because they couldn't afford to get married, but she was disappointed that there was no photographic record of the ceremony," Denard said.

Several hundred people were in the audience as the Rev. G.H. Ayres, pastor of the North Loop Methodist Church, performed the ceremony.

Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Wurzbach — she was a sister of the bridegroom — were the attendants.

Patricia Baker, soloist with the Ernie Young Revue, which performed during the expo, sang. The revue orchestra played the wedding march.

The couple were married nearly 50 years. David Lynch worked for Southern Pacific Railroad most of his life. Irene Lynch stayed home to raise her children. When they were in their teens, she became an employee of the Joske's department store.

In 1970, the Lynches moved to a home on Copano Bay in the Rockport-Fulton area.

Irene Lynch stayed there after her husband's death in 1977, remaining an active member of Rockport's First United Methodist Church.

Descended from a family that played an important part in Texas history, she was the great-granddaughter of Capt. Sylvanus Hatch, first settler of Jackson County.

A great-uncle, John "Jack" Coker, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto and participated in the destruction of Vince's Bridge, which kept Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna and his army from escaping and led to their capture.


cdanini@express-news.net

Published in the San Antonio Express-News on 05/13/2007


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