Barrington woman won over the Black Panthers

As a child of the Great Depression, Miriam Lykke learned the value of people helping others at an early age. Applying that lesson throughout her life even survived the close scrutiny of the Black Panthers.

Lykke became the director of the English as a Second Language program at Chicago’s Nicholas Senn High School in 1965. That role brought her into close daily contact with children of all races, ethnicities and languages. So when the school first began to welcome African-American students, Lykke was the natural choice to be the faculty sponsor of the school club those students wanted to form.

But there was a major problem from the perspective of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. Lykke was white.

“He came to the school to confront her because he just thought it was terrible that there would be this white patron of the Afro-American Club,” said Lykke’s son, Peer. “He met my mother, talked to the kids and went away. When he came back he had a necklace with a Chinese symbol for love he gave to her. He told her that, to him, she had a black heart.”

Lykke, of Barrington, died March 27 in Inverness. She was 89.

Lykke leaves behind the legacy of being a “do-gooder” throughout her life. She earned the Chicago Teacher of the Year award in 1972 by not just being an educator, but serving as a life coach for many of her students even well beyond graduation. Comments left on the guest book for her online obituary testify to her impact.

“I met Mrs. Lykke through my mother, a former student of Senn High School,” wrote Sandra Frausto. “My mother, like many of Mrs. Lykke’s students, kept in touch with her throughout the years and gave our family the pleasure of getting to know such a wonderful woman. Mrs. Lykke (or Grandma Lykke, as my siblings and I called her) has seen me a child, teenager, woman, wife and now a mother. Although my daughter will never have the privilege of getting to know her, I have many wonderful memories to share with her. Grandma Lykke, you will be greatly missed.”

The students she taught to speak, read and write English weren’t the only people struggling in life that caught Lykke’s attention. In addition to her black heart, she had a big heart, said her son, Peer.

Lykke found herself so enamored with the plight of Jews during World War II that she traveled to Israel to learn Hebrew and more about Jewish culture. When she returned home, Lykke converted to Judaism.

“She was always for the underdog,” Peer Lykke said.

Even in retirement Miriam Lykke loved to help others.

“After she retired, she lived at Lake Barrington Shores,” Peer Lykke said. “There was a Hispanic man who did landscaping there. She got to know him because she could speak Spanish. When she found out he was diabetic and had no health care, she got him health care.”

Lykke said his mother had an understanding that to really help someone, it takes more than just one, fleeting encounter. The people Miriam Lykke touched earned her help, and in doing so, earned a friend for life.

“She had absolute expectations,” Peer Lykke said. “She didn’t just want to hand things out. She wanted people to better themselves. And that’s what she helped them do.”

Miriam Lykke was a member of the League of Women Voters in the Barrington area, part of the Barrington Area Writers Group and was inducted into the Barrington Area Council on Aging’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

A memorial service was held Thursday at Davenport Family Funeral Home in Barrington.