Stephanie W Walsh Linard

Stephanie was born on June 12, 1926 at Fort Eustis, Virginia to Army Colonel Thomas Patrick Walsh and Phyllis Moffat Walsh. As an Army child, she travelled and this travel became a life long interest for Stephanie.

She graduated from Ohio University with Phi Beta Kappa. She met her husband-to-be, James Labon Linard at Wright Patterson Air Force base. Wanting travel, both took an offer to work at a new Air Force base in Chateauroux, France. They married on June 12, 1952 and lived in a farmhouse without running water or heat and read Proust by fireplace.

Together they sought romantic adventure and after a brief stint in Florida and two children Jacqueline and Laura, they were stationed in Naples, Italy. The family camped all over Europe in packed Karman Ghia.

The family was stationed at Air Force bases in Waco, Texas; Smyrna, Tennessee and finally in Alexandria, Virginia. By then Stephanie had graduated from Vanderbilt with a Master’s in Library Science and finally was working as the head of cataloging for the Alexandria City Libraries. Her husband died in 1988 of colon cancer complications.

She retired from Alexandria City Libraries after 28 years in 1994. She continued to travel and met a companion of several years, Robert Ford. She travelled and lived with him part of the year in Vallejo, CA. His children, Sally and Susan were grateful to have Stephanie in their father’s life.

She moved to Cadbury Commons following the death of her companion in 2004. In the fall of 2011, she was transferred to nursing care at Neville Place and received hospice from Compassionate Care.

She is survived by her daughters, Jacqueline Linard Gates and her husband Henry Gates and Laura Anne Linard and Fred Evers and their children, James and Sarah.

The funeral arrangements are not complete. A memorial service will be arranged at Cadbury Commons as well.