Linda McCausland Schmid

Linda McCausland Schmid, 91, of Austin, passed away July 4th, 2026 after a brief illness. She was born November 24th, 1934, to Joseph Vanderlin and Rachel Loretta Scott McCausland in Uniontown Pennsylvania.

Linda received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Linda was a classroom teacher in California and Texas, the director of the first Presbyterian Pre-school in Bryan, Texas, a teacher trainer and Instructor at San Francisco State University. She was also the writer and talent for several children’s art and science television series for public television stations, KLRU/KLRN (Austin/San Antonio) and KQED (San Francisco). While at KQED, she was awarded the NET (National Educational Television) Award For Excellence for individual contribution to outstanding television programming (The Eyes Have It) in 1966. Linda Schmid served as Sr. Vice President of the Educational Services Department of KLRU, the public broadcasting affiliate in Austin, Tx, from 1993-2009. She was the Ready-To-Learn Coordinator for the station and served on the PBS Ready-To-Learn advisory Council from January 1997-January 2002.

The University of Texas Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa presented Schmid the James G. Umstattd Award, “Outstanding Contributions to Education” in 1990. Austin I.S.D awarded her the Adopt-A-School Individual Achievement Award 1993. The Children’s Television Workshop presented Schmid the 1995 Ralph B. Rogers Award for promoting utilization of developmentally appropriate television and storybook reading with parents and teachers. KLRU’s Ready-To-Learn Family Reading Project, headed by Schmid, was awarded the 1995 Public Television Outreach Alliance Special Service Award, The Children’s Television Workshop 1996 Elmo Award, the 1997 National Educational Telecommunications Association Award of Excellence, the 1999 Agnes Scott Award for Excellence to children and families, the Community Collaboration 2000:IBM Education Award for collaborations that improve community-wide PreK-12 education and the 2001 Read-To-Learn service award.

Linda had a passion for nature and bird watching. She enjoyed reading, rug making and stitchery.

Linda’s greatest legacy was in the “art of motherhood”. She is survived by her Daughter and son-in-law Vanderlyn and Michael Singley of Austin; daughter and son-in-law Vanessa and Jonathan Maddox of Dallas; and her beloved husband of 65 years, John Edward Schmid.

A gathering of family and friends will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to be made to KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, P.O. Box 78713-7158 or St. David’s Heart Hospital, 3801 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78756