Shirley "Lynn" Moroney

Shirley “Lynn” Pierce was born October 28, 1935, in Duncan, Oklahoma, to Roscoe and Fay Pierce, who named their only child after Shirley Temple. October 28 is the feast day of St. Jude, who she looked to (patron saint of hopeless causes) her entire life. Lynn was raised in Hollywood, California, where she rubbed elbows with stars, tussled with nuns, and ran around with the kids in her predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Hollywood honed Lynn’s ability to talk to anybody, anywhere, and about anything. Dancing lessons turned into a single film opportunity: one tiny dance sequence in the cinematic marvel, Carnival in Costa Rica (eliminated, alas, from the DVD reissue).

When she was twelve, a move back to Oklahoma brought her to Mt. Saint Mary’s boarding school for girls, where she learned to get dressed and undressed underneath her nightgown, facilitating her ability and preference to never, ever be naked. Boarding school provided welcome structure. Upon graduation she attended the University of Oklahoma for one year as a music major, but left and soon married Tony Moroney. She and Tony had two daughters, Irish twins Siobhan and Tracy. Lynn was nominally a stay-at-home mother during the 1960s, but was anything but: she helped found two Montessori schools, hosted a local television show for children who could not attend Sunday school, taught pre-Cana courses at St. Patrick’s church. To quit smoking, she taught herself to play the guitar in 1965 and in the next few years joined other musicians for some informal folk and Irish music gigs around town.

When she sought paid employment in 1970, she got hired by the Oklahoma City Planetarium to write scripts for planetarium shows and deliver them. Despite no college degree or any background in science, she became director of the planetarium in only two years. In 1975, learning that the assistant director earned a higher salary (“because he had a family to support”), she left for the Oklahoma City Arts Council, where she directed education programs for nearly 15 years.

While at the planetarium she began to question why we taught the celestial myths of the Greeks and Romans when Oklahoma had such a rich trove of native star stories. Her scripts began to reflect those sky tales, and in later years, she began telling them outside the planetarium. In 1989, she left the Oklahoma City Arts Council to become a full-time storyteller, specializing in native sky lore. At the same time, she formally enrolled as a citizen of the Chickasaw nation, which embraced her and her stories. World famous Chickasaw storyteller Te Ata passed to Lynn some of her stories, most notably the story of baby rattlesnake. Lynn performed a repertory of skylore at schools, libraries, festivals, via cassettes and CDs, and even through her four books, the most famous of which is Baby Rattlesnake, still in print in both English and Spanish. Another book, Elinda Who Danced In the Sky, is source material for a children’s musical. Lynn founded a storytelling festival in Oklahoma City, Wintertales, and cofounded Territory Tellers, a story-telling organization. She earned more recognition than can be recounted here, but she was especially proud of the John Henry Faulk Award for outstanding contributions to the art of storytelling and her 2016 induction into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame.

Lynn’s sky stories uniquely blended native lore and astronomical science. She worked with NASA, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to develop educational materials blending science and storytelling. She told stories at the Smithsonian and the National Museum of the American Indian. Partnership with the state of Montana and some of their native tribes generated school curricula.

She bequeathed to her daughters many important rules of living: overhead lighting is never flattering, animal prints are not to be worn, and ankle bracelets are “public school.” Her pozole is comfort food, and like her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, she stood by Crisco for frying foods. Being the daughter of a beauty-queen, social butterfly had some challenges but we learned to “dip and swoop,” a social skill that has served us well. Her attention to myth and stories connected to her ability to celebrate events and lives well-lived.

She and Tony divorced; he died in 2008. Her sons-in-law, Francis Greene and Rian Thomas, never heard a word of criticism, and grandchildren, Melody and Adam, received nothing but besotted devotion. Lynn outlived many friends but left many behind; they will remember her laugh, her ability to find humor and joy everywhere. Her death, on January 11, 2026, occurred on Tracy’s 65th birthday, the start of the two-week period when Tracy and Siobhan are both 65. We find that a nice symmetry to Lynn’s life.

In lieu of any gift, please cherish your happy memories of Lynn.

Arrangements entrusted to Chicagoland Cremation Options in Schiller Park, Illinois.