Dates

• Existence: 1933 - 2021

Biography

LaMetta Karen Wynn (Johnson) was born August 4, 1933 in Galena, Illinois to Garret Dey Johnson and Mossie Lee Clark. She graduated from Galena High School and St. Luke’s College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with a degree in nursing. She married Thomas Wynn Sr. in 1955; the couple had ten children. Wynn was a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Clinton, Iowa for more than 30 years, frequently working nights. She later became president of Mercy’s board of directors. She served on the Clinton school board for 12 years, helping to implement a new alternative school in the district to provide a supportive environment for students who struggled in traditional high school. In 1992, Wynn ran unsuccessfully for mayor of the city of Clinton; two years later, she ran again and won, becoming the first Black woman in Iowa elected to a mayoralty. In 1999, she initiated a series of visits to Washington, D.C. to lobby for federal aid, which eventually succeeded in bringing for than $50 million in funding to Clinton. In 2006, Wynn won the Republican nomination for Iowa Senate district 13, then representing Jackson and parts of Clinton and Dubuque counties, but lost to Roger Stewart. She stepped down as Clinton’s mayor in 2007. In the late 2000s and 2010s, she was appointed by governors from both parties to several statewide boards, including Vision Iowa, the Commission on the Status of African-Americans, and the Board of Education. When Wynn passed away in 2021, Governor Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in the state to be flown at half-mast in her honor.

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