Selma Linda Wainionpaa

She was born to the late Tauno and Kerttu Rapo, August 25, 1944, in Quincy, MA. Linda graduated from Quincy High School in 1962 and earned a BA in Education, German and Psychology from Houghton College in 1966. She married John Wainionpaa in 1969 because she “had nothing better to do,” and they lived together most recently in Bellevue, Nebraska, before relocating to Centerville in 2012.

Linda was a restaurateur, an elementary school teacher for many years around the world, an optician’s receptionist, then retail store manager, and in-home childcare provider until she retired in 2003 to follow John to Nebraska. She was passionate about making a difference in the lives of children. For more than 30 years, she coordinated the Operation Christmas Child ministry in every church that she attended, starting with Woodmen Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs.

For the nineteen years of his career that she and John were married, she held “the toughest job in the Navy – Navy Wife,” operationalizing the family’s eighteen moves in the first seventeen years. Notable examples of her life’s adventures include:

• Spent 6 months in Finland being passed from family to family when she was 9

• Managed The Finnish Fare restaurant the summer she turned “Sweet 16”

• Sang with John and others in a prize-winning ensemble

• Waited tables, did housekeeping, and trained wait staff at The Bacon Farm Inn & Restaurant

• Served at The Bacon Farm, studied Bible with, and was baptized by John DeBrine, then host of Songtime

• Met one of her heroes, UNICEF ambassador and movie star Danny Kaye, while waiting on him at Bacon Farm

• Started her bear collection with a gift from a pupil in her first second-grade class

• Established her philosophy of classroom discipline and child-rearing early: “Play by Linda’s rules or you don’t play at all.”

• Operated The Village Fare restaurant in 1976 while her parents vacationed in Finland and John deployed to Iceland

• Learned the harbinger that a household move was imminent: on a visit to the local shopping mall, anyone in the family encountered a person whom they knew

• Managed her own family and nearly a dozen other wives and children in an off-season resort to create a homey atmosphere for aviation crews on deployment and cross-cultural good will with the host Sicilians, to the amazement and gratitude of the chain of command, in 1977-78

• Beautified a ramshackle cottage in Bermuda for the six months of the family’s stay there in 1979, doing the grocery shopping and laundry logistics on a moped with a preschooler between her legs, with a helmet that matched hers

• Hosted a needlepoint and cross stitch gathering in Monterey, California in her home, while also serving as president of the Officer Students Wives Club, pursuing a Master’s Degree, and teaching English as a Second Language in elementary school to pupils from several different countries

• Led a Vacation Bible School of 425 international children the week her youngest had a tonsillectomy, and avoided an international incident

• Achieved her PHT degree at Naval Postgraduate School (“Pushing Hubby Through”)

• Enjoyed the tropical climate and beautiful beaches of Okinawa with dear Friend Anabeth

• Taught second grade as a substitute in the Department of Defense School on Kadena Air Base

• Shepherded the family through the 28 days of their return to the USA from the Far East via Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo Japan (including Tokyo Disney); Hong Kong; Singapore; Cairo; Rome; London; Boston

• Led a summer music camp for 125 youngsters at Woodmen Valley Chapel

• Began her lifelong passion in Colorado for Operation Christmas Child’s shoebox ministry

• Hosted Finnish Exchange Students as well as the “Wainionpaa Home for Wayward Children and Used Car Lot” at her home in Colorado Springs

• Enjoyed annual Family Winter Weekends at Horn Creek in the Colorado Rockies with church and family friends

• Sang lead soprano in the Wainionpaa Family Singers in churches, chapels, and family gatherings

• Provided much-needed childcare services for-profit and for moms attending Bible Studies

• Motivated John through some job transitions during her childcare days; she said, “I married you for better or worse, not for lunch…”

• Supported many New Life Baptist Church ministries in Nebraska: the Thursday Family Suppers, Mothers to Others, children’s music, Sunday School, for example

• Established a warm and loving retirement home on Cape Cod in what had been “The Summer Place,” including annual New Year Bear Open Houses that featured her collection of 1500 or so bears

• Grieved the losses in close succession of some of her closest friends: Evelyn (from her youth), Peggy (college accompanist), Anabeth (since Bermuda), and Susan (from 1970 in Albuquerque)

• Cared for and spent quality time with grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Colorado Springs, Aurora, Cape Cod, Iowa, and Nebraska

Linda was an active member of Christ Chapel of Cape Cod, serving as Christian Education Leader, Nursery Coordinator, Women’s Fellowship Board Member, Bible Study Leader, on the Hospitality Team, and Operation Christmas Child Chairperson (her greatest joy).

Linda is survived by her husband John of nearly fifty-five years and three children: Heidi Adamski (husband Anthony) of Bellevue, Nebraska; Erik Wainionpaa (wife Erica) of Aurora, Colorado; and Sinikka Waugh (husband Spencer), of Indianola, Iowa. She also is survived by seven grandchildren (Elizabeth [Adamski] Modesto (husband Martin) of Bellevue, Nebraska; James Adamski of Roswell, New Mexico; Josef “Quinn” Adamski of Centerville; Ashleigh Wainionpaa of Aurora, Colorado; Luke Wainionpaa of Phoenix, Arizona; Anja and Sophie Waugh of Indianola, Iowa), and two great-grandchildren, Lizette and Malakai Modesto of Bellevue, Nebraska. She is also survived by her older brothers Dr. Seppo Rapo of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts and Paul Rapo of San Marcos, California, their wives Judy and Melissa respectively, nephews, nieces and grand-nephews and grand-nieces. Others from John’s side of the family are: Brother-in-law Arthur Reed of Abington, Massachusetts and his extended family.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to:

Samaritan’s Purse

Operation Christmas Child

PO Box 3000

Boone, NC 28607

828.262.1980,

at https://www.samaritanspurse.org/donation-items/operation-christmas-child-2/,

the Children’s Ministry at Christ Chapel or wherever you worship.

A Celebration of Life service will be held at 3 P.M. Sunday, August 25, 2024 at Christ Chapel, 1200 Old Stage Road, Centerville, MA 02632, with livestream and a reception in the Fellowship Hall afterward.

Burial will be held on Friday, October 18, 2024 11:30AM (which would have been her 55th wedding anniversary) at the Massachusetts National Cemetery, with a lunch reception to follow.

Funeral arrangements are being facilitated by Doane, Beal and Ames Funeral Home, Hyannis, Massachusetts.