Linda Shirley Brisbine

Linda Shirley Brisbine was born on 18 April, 1949, to Marion Lillian (LaBerge) Hout and George Leanard Huot in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She was the second child of four, Michael being the oldest and Shelley and Richie being several years younger. LInda lost her father to a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 14. One of her favorite memories was dancing around the kitchen with her father on Sunday mornings as he was cooking breakfast. After her father died, Linda became the caregiver of her much younger siblings. Eventually, a half sister Nanette would join the family.

At age 18, Linda moved to Washington with her first husband. Although she was only 19, when that marriage ended she made the choice to remain in the area and the Pacific Northwest became her home for the rest of her life. To support herself, she enrolled in beauty college and became a top rated hair stylist.

She began studying the bible at East Hill under Pastor Jerry Cook. There she met and married her second husband and had two sons, Brian and Eric. She also helped raise his two sons Jay and Joey. Linda realized that she wanted a different life for herself and her children than the one she would have with her second husband, and after her second marriage ended she decided that in order to support herself and her sons she needed to pursue more education and she did, earning a degree in human resources from Portland State University.

In 1986, while working towards her degree Linda took a math class. Gil Albelo had hired me to teach a math class at Mt. Hood Community College. Linda was one of the students in that class. One of my earliest memories of her was attempting to get me to move the midterm so she could go skiing with finance friend. We were married in 1987.

My own sons David and Brian brought the total of boys that Linda helped raise to six. But, after marriage and as we began our journey together it was evident that we had very different parenting styles. Answers were found at East Hill Church with love and logic parenting and our development of the blended family teaching program. She was proud that all six boys grew into strong, responsible, independent men. (And none of them went to jail.)

After the boys left home, cruising and great vacations were what we loved to do. She refused to wait on doing the things she wanted to do and always said, “we are going to do it now, while we both have our health” and we did. She liked to be home to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with big gatherings of her family and friends, but always insisted that around February we took a trip somewhere warm to get out of the northwest chill. One of our favorite trips was cruising in Mexico on the Crystal Symphony ship, the experience was very luxurious and a lot of fun.

Many of you know Linda through dancing, and it was one of her favorite things to do. She was a great dancer and loved to be around people. She was kind, vivacious, and always sparkled like the “bling” on her clothes. She always had a compliment for fellow dancers. Through dance our circle of friends grew tremendously.

Her family loved her for so many reasons; her kindness, her humor, her patience, and her unconditional love for us all. She taught her sons to be parents themselves and give to their children, the love that she had always shown them.

She was a great partner, mother, grandmother, vacationer, soulmate and so, so much more for 34 years. I was fortunate to be with her when she passed. She was at peace when she departed, and I know she is dancing with the best partner ever- God.

In lieu of flowers the family has asked for donations to be made to The World Kitchen (https://donate.wck.org/give/396273/#!/donation/checkout)

or to St. Judes (https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude.html?sc_dcm=58700006942402314&sc_cid=kwp&sc_cat=b&amount=x&ds_rl=1285465&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7ZDCneHY-AIVXD2tBh1WPgQxEAAYASABEgKQxPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.batemancarrollfunerals.com for the Brisbine family.