Lynda Jo Tipton (de Vries), age 67, formerly of Erwin, passed away on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Evanston Hospital. Ms. Tipton was born in Welch, WV, and was the daughter of Joel W. and Elva (Bailey) Tipton. Lynda graduated from Unicoi County High School in 1963 and attended ETSU before moving to Chicago where she received a bachelor's degree from, and attended graduate school at, the University of Illinois at Chicago. Following several years working at the university in the Sleep and Dream Research Laboratory, she became the staff person for the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and a union representative with Local 73, Service Employees International Union. At the time of her death she was the business manager of Firetech Engineering Incorporated in Evanston. Lynda is survived by husband, David de Vries and son, Evan de Vries (Evanston IL), sister Betty Scott (Waukesha WI) and sister Barbara Ratliff (Vermillion OH). Family and friends will gather for a memorial service to celebrate Lynda's life at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, 2013 at the Olson Burke/Sullivan Funeral and Cremation Center, 6471 N. Northwest Highway, Chicago, Illinois (www.obsfuneralandcremation.com). Following the memorial service, the family will receive friends until 4:00 p.m. Lynda bravely battled kidney cancer for more than a year. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in the memory of Lynda Tipton to the Kidney Cancer Association (www.kidneycancer.org).