Linda Margaret White

Linda Margaret White was born on September 13, 1952 in Grants Pass, Oregon, the first child of Carl and Ernestine Huston. She was named after her grandmother. Prior to Linda’s birth, Ernie had worked at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s and enjoyed showing off her new baby daughter to her customers. Brother David joined the family in 1954, brother Mike in 1956, and sister Nancy in 1961. The family was made complete with loving grandparents, aunts, uncles and many cousins. Carl & Ernie’s young family enjoyed camping and fishing, and raising animals. Linda’s first pet was a baby calf named “Beefsteak” which lived to be 14. In time, she also acquired 2 horses, a Shetland pony named “Littlebit” and a swaybacked, palamino quarter horse named “Poncho”. Linda and Poncho enjoyed many escapades in and around the area now known as Cathedral Hills. Linda didn’t always appreciate being required to take little sister Nancy along on rides, so it was a favorite trick of hers, to cause Poncho to give a well-timed buck, causing little sis to run to the house crying… problem solved! Linda also enjoyed raising market steers in 4-H and selling them at our county fair. Linda always had an independent spirit and began earning her own way as a young teenager, by working at the Grants Pass Rollerdome, at the concession counter.

As a young adult, Linda’s pride and joy was a metallic purple 1957 Chevy she purchased from a neighbor. Linda and her dad rebuilt the Chevy’s engine in their garage so when Linda embraced life as a college student in Salem, Oregon, she could stand next to any mechanic and discuss whatever ailed her car. Her dad lectured her about never running out of gas, and he says it is one of the first things she did at college, in the middle of the night. By the way, she still has the Chevy, sporting a bright red and white paint job. After conquering a very brief bout of home sickness, Linda never looked back, and began her education in the health profession, beginning as a Medical Assistant. Linda also loved live music and could be found at any concert standing directly in front of the speakers! She has a large 45 speed collection of vinyl records from the 60’s.

Linda asserted her independence when she joined the United States Army in 1973. Even then, Linda knew she wanted to see the world and see the world, she did. Her first assignment was in Frankfurt Germany, where she met and married Bill White, and they welcomed their firstborn daughter, Shawna, to their family. Eventually their army life led them to Denver Colorado, where Linda worked at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center. Sons, Shane and John joined the family in Colorado. As a young mom, Linda once called home to ask her mom how to cook macaroni and cheese, because hers seemed to be too runny. Her mom quickly figured out that she had never drained the water off the noodles, before mixing. Cooking was never her forte’, however nursing was.

Linda finished her education at Portland Community College in 1989, obtaining her degree as a registered nurse. She began her nursing career at Southern Oregon Medical Center in Grants Pass, now known as Three Rivers Community Hospital. She has worked for Three Rivers for a total of 19 years. She was the House Supervisor for 17 years, and a Medical Surgical Nurse. Most recently she was a Home Health and Hospice Nurse. Linda really enjoyed this new assignment, saying that she enjoyed the hospice nursing, feeling like she was really making a difference in people’s lives.

She restarted her army career as a reservist in B Company 396th Combat Support Hospital in 2000. She was activated during Desert Storm where she served in Landstuhl, Germany, providing care for wounded soldiers following their evacuation from Iraq . She was able to spend some of that time traveling around Europe, adding more travels to her “bucket” list. She was also activated for Iraqi Freedom, where she served 6 months in Ft. Lewis Washington, followed by a year in Savannah, Georgia. Travel highlights during that time included visiting the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, some well deserved weekends in Florida, and a visit to Washington DC. Linda was well on her way to retirement, having served 19 years and 3 months in the army!

Linda worked hard to support her family and raise her children. She bought a home on Cumberland Drive in Grants Pass and always thoroughly enjoyed her home. The family traveled to Vancouver, BC, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole Wyoming and took a cruise to the Bahamas. They also enjoyed annual camping trips to Lake of the Woods with the entire Huston clan. Linda’s life as a graveyard shift nurse, gave way to some fun quirkiness. For instance, she loved shopping for groceries at midnight, woke up her kids while vacuuming at 3 am, or loved to make phone calls at 11 pm and say “Oh, are you home?”

True highlights in Linda’s life were the marriages of her children ; Shawna to Tim Copeland and Shane to Kim Frost, and the addition of 3 beautiful grand daughters-Meagan and Melanie and Kaylee Rose. Linda was also quite proud of son John, who is making his own way in the banking business as a bank manager.

Three years ago, Linda took her mom, Ernie, joined by sister Nancy, back to her mom’s hometown in Ohio. The threesome enjoyed visiting relatives, and exploring their mom’s childhood along with the nearby Amish county. They bought Amish quilts and recovered Ernie’s mother’s antique sewing machine.

Linda loved music, reading, and traveling anywhere and everywhere. If she found herself with a few days off in a row, she would head to the interstate, traveling wherever her heart led her and not always with a plan, but usually ended up at the homes of her kids and grandkids. She also loved people. You would never find her at her home for long. If she wasn’t working, she was traveling, or hanging out with family, friends or co-workers.

A night our family will never forget was the night of October 17th, when a cat scan revealed that Linda had a mass in her brain. Later diagnosed as Glioblastoma Multiforme, we learned that our mom, daughter, sister and aunt, had an incurable form of cancer. As you might expect or predict, Linda faced her cancer with courage, and began the fight of her life. To our knowledge, Linda never had a pity party or cried “Why Me”? She only commented that “You do what you gotta do.” She was brave during her chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Her music of choice in the radiation treatment room was Led Zeppelin! She thoroughly enjoyed visiting with all of her friends and relatives during this time. Linda’s final weeks and days were spent preparing for her departure to Heaven, and we all know without a doubt the God revealed himself to Linda during this time and that she is now in Heaven attending the biggest live band concert ever. We are comforted by the knowledge that she has a new body….that is cancer free.

All of us and especially Linda, have been truly blessed by the outpouring of love and friendship during her illness and we will never forget the flowers, food, kind words and compassion expressed by all of you. The words thank you will never seem enough, but we want you to know that we are forever blessed by your expressions of kindness. We also would like our Three Rivers Home Health and Hospice nurses and the staff at Highland House to know that we are indebted to you for your skill, kindness and compassion that you shared with us during Linda’s illness and all of you are truly angels.