Lura Lynn Ryan

Lura Lynn Ryan served as First Lady of Illinois at the start of the 21st century.  She and George had six children. Lura Lynn made it a priority to participate in causes involving the arts, drug and alcohol abuse, organ donation, historic preservation, and recognizing Abraham Lincoln. She also initiated several renovations for the Illinois Governor's Mansion. 

"As First Lady, Lura Lynn became a major fundraiser and first chairwoman of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 2005 in Springfield, Illinois. She launched the fundraising for the library by raising $250,000. Ryan also organized a program in which Illinois schoolchildren collected pennies for the construction of the presidential library, which raised $47,000. Ryan was appointed to the 14-member Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives to commemorate the 200th birthday of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 2009. She served on the commission from 2001 to 2010.

She supported after-school programs and literacy campaigns aimed at discouraging drug use among young people in Illinois. The anti-drug nonprofit, Prevention First, honored Lura Lynn Ryan's work by naming two research libraries in Springfield and Chicago for her. Together, the two libraries hold one of the United States' largest collections on substance abuse.

Lura Lynn Ryan co-authored a book, At Home with Illinois Governors: A Social History of the Illinois Executive Mansion, 1855-2003, with historian Dan Monroe in 2002 on the history of Illinois Governors and their families. She further promoted Made in Illinois, a catalog that had first been launched in 1988 to promote crafts and other products produced in Illinois."