Born in Tokyo, Japan, on August 1, 1954, the eldest child of Tomiko Yamada Ferrell and Cecil B. Ferrell, Linda Marie Ferrell passed away peacefully in Columbus, Georgia, on September 24, 2025. A graduate of Kendrick High School, Linda studied pre-nursing at Columbus State University before earning her nursing degree from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing at the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1976. She then served proudly as a nurse in the United States Army, rising to the rank of Captain prior to her retirement.
Following retirement from the Army, Linda returned to school and earned a Masters Degree in Education at Columbus State University and began a second career as an educator. She taught in Columbus at Kendrick High School and Arnold Middle School, but she was most proud of the work that she and her colleagues did at the Teenage Parenting Center from 1998 until its closure in 2012. For the rest of her life, graduates of that program would see her in stores, restaurants, or just on the street, and stop to say hello to ”Miss Fur-Real”. Also, later in life Linda used her intellectual prowess to become a member of Mensa.
After retiring from the field of education, Linda was always up for new adventures and was always devoted to her family, particularly her mother, for whom she served as the primary care giver for several years. She also became one of the biggest fans of the Columbus Lions arena football team (“Let’s go, Lions!”).
Linda is survived by her precious and precocious chihuahua, ChaCha, her husband, Donald Cleveland, her sister, Sandra Ferrell Beidler (David), a number of nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews, and some in-laws she acquired late in life, but whom she loved dearly.
She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Douglas F. Ferrell.
Services will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2025, at 3 o’clock, p.m., EDT, at Striffler Hamby Mortuary, 4071 Macon Road, Columbus, Georgia. Interment to follow at Parkhill Cemetery. The family will receive visitors from 2 o’clock until the funeral hour.
The family respectfully declines the gift of flowers and suggests that donations in her memory be made to: Valley Haven School, 6345 Fairfax Bypass, Valley, Alabama 36854 ([email protected]) or the religious or charitable organization of one’s own choosing.
