Linda Blanche Camp

Linda was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the dawn of the Jazz Age. She had the courage of her father, George Atkins, who fought in the trenches of the First World War and survived Vimy Ridge, and she had her mother Geraldine’s unshakable loyalty to family and friends.

She was a proud descendant of Loyalists in New Brunswick and shipbuilders from Spencer's Island, N.S. Her hero was her grandmother, who defied convention by joining her sea captain husband on his travels around the world.

Linda didn’t like to talk about her age, although she did talk about standing with Civil War veterans as a child on Memorial Day and having tea with Thomas Alva Edison.

During the Great Depression, she would throw herself into school and athletics in Montclair, N.J., then spend summers at Robertson’s Point, N.B., her second home throughout her life. She worked in war shipping in New York during the Second World War and learned how to fly a plane, thinking it might be a useful skill should women be drafted.

Like her parents, Linda went to Acadia University, where she met and later married Dalton Camp.

They had five children, Gail, David, Constance, Cherie, and Michael. She made sure they were exposed to music, art and travel, and she never gave up trying to interest them in their roots.

She encouraged them always to do what they really wanted to do.

Linda’s busy home life didn’t stop her from being a founding member of the Canadian Opera Women’s Committee, serving on the boards of the Shaw Festival, Royal Ontario Museum and the Dellcrest children’s centre, or from raising her hand when volunteers were needed in other cultural, academic or charitable organizations.

She was proud of the day she became a Canadian citizen.

Linda and Dalton divorced in the 1980s but were together again in the final years of his life. In between, she cultivated magnificent friendships, enjoyed her grandchildren, took classes at Glendon College, and attacked every day with zest and curiosity.

She could sit still to play bridge or do crosswords but usually liked to be out — walking around Cabbagetown, playing tennis, attending the opera, symphony or the theatre, dining with friends, visiting a gallery, travelling almost anywhere. She celebrated her 90th birthday in London, not long after visiting Russia. That same year, rejecting all challenges to her independence and eager to get to Robertson's Point, she hopped in her car and drove the 1,500 kilometres herself in one day.

Her calendar was so full it was barely decipherable. Until the end, however, she spoke with a crystal clear voice.

Those who knew her best will miss her most.

Linda is survived by her three daughters and two sons, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home at 467 Sherbourne St., Toronto, is looking after arrangements. Instead of flowers, donations to the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., or Diabetes Hope Foundation would be appreciated by the family.