Jacqueline Diane Bosworth

Jacqueline (Lynne) Diane Bosworth, age 87, passed away on June 11, 2026, after a five-year battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Lynne was surrounded by her large and loving family when she entered into eternal rest, which was fitting, because family was the foundation of her long and impactful life.

She and her husband of 65 years, John, raised five children and had 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. During the second half of her life, as a grandmother and a great-grandmother, Lynne was both grand and great, showering them all with love, affection, and generosity. She babysat or watched all of her grandchildren over the years, never turning down an opportunity to care for them, visit them, or drop off a tray of her delicious brownies.

Lynne’s love of family was evident each year when she and John hosted their loud and lively family for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and assorted other occasions at their home in Lanham, Maryland.

Christmas Day in particular was a spectacle, often with 25 people crammed into the family room to rifle through their stockings, open gift after gift after gift, and fling balled-up scraps of wrapping paper at one another, adding to the chaos. There was brunch in the late morning, appetizers in the afternoon, and dinner at night. It was an all-day affair — and this came after a Christmas Eve gathering that included Mass followed by a get-together at their house and Ledo’s pizza.

Lynne was generous to a fault and always wanted to give birthday and Christmas gifts that the recipient would consider special. The worst thing to ask for? A gift card, because she treasured watching her kids and grandkids open something tangible and seeing their reaction to the gift. If she relented and bought you a gift card, she made sure that you promised to tell her exactly what you were going to buy with it.

With the Christmas gifts Lynne received from her family, it didn’t matter if you gave her the Hope Diamond, bought her a mink coat, or arranged for a personal audience with the Pope, she’d always say her favorite present was the next-year calendar that was stocked with family photos and noted everyone’s birthday and wedding anniversary.

Lynne was a constant presence at her children’s and grandchildren’s events, traveling around the Baltimore-Washington region for soccer, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, and softball games, gymnastics meets, diving contests, cheerleading competitions, and school plays. She made a thousand new friends at these events, always leaving a good impression with the other parents or grandparents, never failing to ask them about their lives and families, and even nabbing a new cellphone number or two. A lot of these acquaintances would say words to the effect of: “She is such a nice and sweet lady — and she’s got a lot of spunk!”

This group added to her already extensive list of friends, compiled from Catholic Cana groups, the neighborhood, her kids’ schools, her adult children’s neighbors, and more. With family and friends, Lynne never forgot a birthday or anniversary and tried to send the cards so they would arrive in the mailbox on the exact date. She stayed in contact with nieces and nephews who were spread out from Florida to Georgia to New York and California, checking in to ask about their lives, spouses, and children.

She relished the family vacation in Crescent Beach, Florida, that began in 1989 and includes a consecutive-years string that would make Cal Ripken proud — 25 years in a row — and was stopped only by a global pandemic in 2020. The family returned in 2021 to begin a new streak.

Florida in July and August is as hot as Hades, but she didn’t need the cooling relief of the ocean or swimming pool, rarely if ever wading into the water. Instead, she loved to play beach bocce ball, take long walks with John, and admire the sandpiper birds as they scurried along the shoreline (she really loved butterflies, too).

She really just wanted to see her kids and grandkids enjoying this annual family vacation. She found comfort in having everyone all together in one spot — which is exactly what happened on the day she passed.

Lynne was born to Louis Daniel and Yvonne Bazinet Daniel on January 18, 1939, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the youngest child of the family, joining her sisters, Marcella and Pauline, and brother, Louis. Another sibling, Jean-Louis, was born between the older sisters but passed away during infancy.

The Daniel family migrated to Miami when Lynne was a young teen, and she attended St. Teresa’s School in Coral Gables, Florida. That’s where she met John, a fellow high school junior whom Sister Rose de Lima had moved to a first-row seat in the classroom to keep a closer eye on him — and to keep him away from his spirited buddies in the back.

John’s new desk was situated next to the pretty new girl in school, Lynne, and he scribbled on her notebook to get her attention. The ploy worked, they started dating, and John drifted away from his pals, who according to him were “unattached” to a girlfriend. Lynne and John quickly became an item, joining a clique of couples at the school and beginning a 71-year love story.

They got engaged in 1959, were married in September 1960, and honeymooned in Puerto Rico with an unexpected guest, Hurricane Donna, a strong storm that brushed past the island and struck their South Florida home area a week later.

Lynne traveled with John to Oklahoma and North Carolina during his Army service before heading north to Maryland when her civil engineer spouse took a job at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. They welcomed five babies in 10 years, lived in Riverdale and New Carrollton, and settled into the Lanham house they called home for 56 years.

This would hardly be the end of Lynne’s travels, as she joined John on many work trips around the world: China, Russia, Japan, Peru, Chile, Kenya, Australia, all over Europe, and more. And no matter the country, they always found a Catholic church to attend Sunday Mass.

But her heart always longed for home and to be with her family. She was proud that all of her children and most of her grandchildren had settled in Maryland, keeping the family close for all these years and in the days and hours before she passed.

Lynne is survived by her husband John Bosworth Sr. of Lanham; son John Bosworth Jr. and his wife Ellen of Rockville, Md.; daughter Diane Cortina and her husband Lou of Ellicott City, Md.; daughter Denise Stewart and her husband Harry of Ellicott City; son Robert Bosworth and his wife Susan of Ocean Pines, Md.; and son Michael and his wife Lisa of Elkridge, Md.

She also is survived by 15 grandchildren — Michael (and his wife Lauren), Danielle (and her husband Eddie), Daniel, Matt, Nicholas, Colin, Katie May, Christian, Alex, Matthew, Carson, Jessica, Donna, Ryan, and Jenna — and two great-grandchildren, Mason and Remy.

In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes memorial donations to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation or Pathfinders for Autism in memory of Lynne Bosworth. If you are so inclined, please scroll down on this page and leave a note about Lynne in the Guestbook section.