By ERIN BOWLEY | May 13, 2026

If you walk into Stonetree Coffee & Pottery, you’ll see canvases lining the walls; fluid pours, pumpkins, flowers, and sweeping landscapes. They’re beautiful, and you might find yourself wondering who created them. Well, I’ve got the answer.

Most of the artwork that fills Stonetree comes from Debbie Grigsby‑Lynch, an artist with 54 years of on‑and‑off experience. But she isn’t just an artist.

Grisby-Lynch was born in Alabama and raised in Tennessee, where she crossed paths with Johnny Cash, as he was her friend’s father. She didn’t know then that he was Johnny Cash, the singer/songwriter icon we know as the “Man in Black.” 

She first discovered her love for art in the third grade, when she drew a rabbit in art class. She immediately fell in love. It became an escape for her, along with singing. “It’s a peaceful, mind-quieting time for myself,” she said, describing the feeling she experiences doing both tasks. She later moved to Kansas in 1972 to begin her freshman year at Jayhawk-Linn.

Her talent for art runs in the Grigsby-Lynch family, on both her parent’s sides. She has family members in various parts of the United States who are currently pursuing art, including her sister, Melissa Brown. Her mother was artistic as well. She was unaware of this fact until her mother passed, and she discovered her watercolors. Grisby-Lynch’s cousin, Leroy Grigsby, was her high school art teacher. Small world! She graduated in 1976. 

While art shaped much of her early life, the next chapter of her story was defined by faith and family. Her love story started God-centered. Her now-husband, Virgil, was a youth pastor at the First Baptist Church in Mound City. Three friends who knew the couple individually prayed to introduce them. That was in 2006, and just a year later, the two were married. They are now business partners, who own their own carpet cleaning business, LCMC Carpets. Grigsby-Lynch had three children, all boys: Keith, Bryan, and Luke, who kept her busy most of the time. She spent her free time gardening, painting, singing, and playing instruments. 

In 2006, she felt compelled by God to audition for an off-Broadway show of Godspell when she saw it in the newspaper. She got the lead part. She practiced for three months and finally preformed at the Liberty Theatre in Fort Scott, Kan. She played the flute in the show; one of three instruments she is knowledgeable in, including: piano, guitar, and the flute. 

Faith is at the center of everything Grigsby‑Lynch does. She believes God leads her to create. The Valley of Flowers, one of her paintings, was completed under what she describes as God’s guidance. The Center for Rheumatic Disease in Kansas City, Mo., now displays the piece. It took her about three months to finish, and it has become a source of comfort for patients who see it. 

“I want all of my life, in whatever I am doing, to point to Jesus,” she said. “Just because you think you can’t do something, there’s a possibility you can, you just have to try.” 

She leaves us with a Bible verse to ponder, one that reflects her life well: Colossians 3:23.