Linda Holdman Ball

Linda was born in Marked Tree, Arkansas, on October 4, 1942. She was the first of four daughters born to Neal and Mattie Mae Wardlow Holdman. When Linda was three years old, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she lived until her late twenties. She graduated from a private high school in Nashville.

Linda was a hard worker starting at an early age. While working at the General Electric plant in Memphis, she studied to be a beautician and after working at both jobs for a period of time, she became a hair stylist at a local salon. In 1970, she moved to Miami, Florida, and opened her own hair salon which she operated for many years before selling the business.

In 2002, approaching the age of 60, Linda started a new career that would occupy the rest of her life and would put to use the acute listening and “people skills” acquired during 30 years of people opening up to her about their lives and problems. At the encouragement of her sister Scharlette, she devoted her energies to interviewing family, friends and acquaintances of individuals facing the death penalty, developing comprehensive social histories of their lives in furtherance of winning mercy in the criminal justice system. She was exceptionally good at it and lives were spared based on her tireless dedication to the cause.

She loved life and was a woman of considerable talents. She was a gourmet cook, an avid gardener and horticulturist, and a true aesthete with the eye of an artist. She had a deep appreciation of beauty. But more than anything she was hilariously witty and probably could have been a standup comic.

Linda was predeceased by her sisters Ethel Mae “Sissy” Olson and Scharlette Holdman. She is survived by her sister, Brenda Holdman, daughter Leesa Cimera, and grandsons Dylan and Carson Cimera.

Plans for a memorial will be forthcoming.