Can't suppress/hide default blue border around linked images

Wondering if anyone can help as I have been struggling with this. Seems like such an easy, basic issue.  My linked images are displaying with the ugly default blue border aorund it. 

I manually inserted various renditions of "border" code into both the "<a href>" and "<img src" tags with no luck. They code "sticks" for that active session provided I don't toggle out of HTML mode and return to WYSIWYG mode.  Once I return to WYSIWYG mode, any inserted border code is stripped out/overwritten, and the blue border comes back. Also, if I save my template and exit out, and then return to the saved templated at a later time, the border code is also stripped out.

Here's the code that CKEditor is enforcing:

<a href=”link”><img alt="copy" height="355" src="filepath” width="474" /></a>

Here's my attempts that all get overwritten and returned to above:

<a href="link"><img alt="copy" src="filepath" style="border-style: solid; border-width:0px; height:355px; width:474px" /></a>

—and—

<a href="link"><img alt="copy" src="filepath" style="border-style: none; height:355px; width:474px" /></a>

—and—

<a href="link"><img alt="copy" src="filepath" style="border-style: hidden; height:355px; width:474px" /></a>

—and—

<a href="link"><img alt="copy" src="filepath" style="border: none; height:355px; width:474px" /></a>

—and—

<a href=”link”><img alt="copy" height="355" src="filepath” width="474" style="border: none"  /></a>   [also tried "hidden"]

—and—

<a href=”link”><img alt="copy" height="355" src="filepath” width="474" border="0" /></a>

—and—

[I even tried faking it out by having the border color blend in w/ my white background]

<a href=”link”><img alt="copy" height="355" src="filepath” width="474" style="border: 1px solid white"  /></a>

—and—

[I even tried using the "Advanced" features via the Edit Link option and this is what CKEditor puts in, but it doesn't suppress the blue border around the linked image ]

<a href=”link” style="border: medium none"><img alt="copy" height="355" src="filepath” width="474" /></a>

—and—

[I should also note that I tried overriding the default blue link color in the master parent table to a color that matches our branding, but that doesn't "take." Email clients still show the ugly blue default color for links.]

<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="a:active {color: #AF1E2D}; width:650px">

No matter what border code I manually insert, it gets stripped out by the editor when I leave my saved template or toggle out to WYSIWYG mode. I know what answer might be, "Well, don't leave HTML mode and send the email campaign from that active session."  That is not feasible b/c the person who sends out campaigns is not the same person who creates the emails.

Can anyone help?