Rauslynn Marie Boyd was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 21st, 1960. She was the daughter of the late Willie Marie Alston and Hansom Alston. Educated in the Philadelphia Public School system, she graduated from Overbrook High School in 1978. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts, Business and Organizational Communication with honors from the University of Akron in 2013. She received a Master’s Degree in English in 2017. In between her pursuits of education, she pursued many careers and titles; she became a Private First Class in the United States Army, where she met her husband, Kennard Boyd. She worked as a banker, a floral designer, and ultimately and most proudly a professor at the University of Akron and Malone University. Rauslynn’s hobbies included reading, writing, and all things arts and crafts. She upheld education and academia overall, and was an established intellectual in her field. As a dedicated and loving mother, she worked to instill her values onto her children. She leaves to cherish her memory: her husband, Kennard J. Boyd, and her daughter, Noelle Marie Boyd. She is preceded in death by her father, Hansom Alston (1993), her mother, Willie Marie Alston (2009), and her son, Kennard Warren Boyd (2010). Further cherishing her memory are a large host of nieces, cousins, relatives, and friends.