Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/WPTV
The most compelling voice against book banning in Florida was perched on her walker as she addressed the 500 people at this week’s meeting of the Martin County School Board.
“I am Grace Linn,” she said. “I am a hundred years young. I’m here to protest our school’s district book banning policy. My husband, Robert Nicoll, was killed in action in World War II at a very young age. He was only 26, defending our democracy, constitution and freedoms.”
Her husband’s unit had been providing ammunition to the French resistance when it was bombed and strafed by Nazi planes on Decoration Day, 1944, eight days before the Normandy Invasion. She had been seven months pregnant when he was initially declared missing in action. A telegram reporting that he had been declared dead was delivered to her at the hospital three days after the birth of their daughter, Nicci. Linn later received a photo that her husband had brought with him to Europe, but his remains were never recovered.