Linda Janet Hirst

Linda Janet Hirst was born in the city of Riverside, California on December 17, 1946, about a year after the war with Japan ended. Her father Harry had been serving with the U.S. 210th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines. He had returned home to his beloved wife Julie in the autumn of 1945. Linda died in the early morning of March 13, 2026, at Capitol Hill Senior Living in Salt Lake City, Utah. She leaves behind grieving family and friends who love her deeply. Linda has three brothers and sisters-in-law: Bruce & Diane, Russel & Rebecca, David & Linda. She also leaves four cousins—Jon, Terry, Brian, and Scott—as well as nine nieces and nephews: Jennifer, Daniel, and Jason; Elizabeth, Stephen, and Mary; Kristin, Erika, and Bryan. And numerous grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Linda was a kind, gentle, artistic soul. Growing up in Riverside, and later up north in Redding, California, she learned to play the flute and violin, and she performed with school dance teams. She also loved to read and tell stories, to sing, and to draw and sculpt. She was very talented, and she went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in education and art at Brigham Young University. Upon graduation in the late 1960s, she taught for a few years, first in California and then in Utah, before turning to employment with the Utah Department of Workforce Services. She made her home in Salt Lake City from that time forward.

Linda was always a woman of strong faith, a devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and she stayed active in the wards she attended, serving in choirs and in the Relief Society in many capacities. The last calling she served, before health problems slowed her down, was coordinator for her stake’s blood donation program—literally a vital calling, which she served with great diligence.

Linda was a kind-hearted person, and in addition to church service she supported various charities and causes. In particular, she supported the Humane Society and the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). In addition to donations, she labored to find homes for homeless cats and dogs. Some of those, especially the cats, found their home with her.

As Linda’s health problems increased in later years, travel became difficult for her, so trips to Northern Cal and elsewhere fell away. As her legs and feet became increasingly numb, it became impossible for her to safely use car pedals. So she had her car retrofitted with hand controls, and for some time she still drove around in Salt Lake City doing her errands. She was persistent and held on to her independence as long as she possibly could.

About five years ago, Linda had to move into the care facility, and she keenly missed her home and garden, and of course her cats. She saw to their care through others, though.

During these senior-living years, Linda also had to endure many temporary moves to even-greater-care facilities as she struggled with the debilitating effects of diabetes and of being wheelchair-bound. Throughout the final years of Linda’s health struggles, she never stopped trying to get better, to get stronger, and to deal with the complexities of medications and doctors and physical therapy. In the last weeks of her life, she had just achieved enough strength to return from a greater-care facility to her apartment at Capitol Hill Senior Living. In the early hours of March 13, the nurses found Linda lifeless, on her knees at her bedside. She must have been talking with her Heavenly Father, who took his beloved daughter back home to dwell again with him and the heavenly family.

Linda Janet Hirst lived a mortal life of gentle service and love given to many people and to the broader Creation as well. She was a woman endowed with many talents, strong-willed, and strong spirited. Above all, she is a daughter of God whose faith and love embrace the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Into His hands we commend our beloved, beautiful Linda.

A Morning Viewing will be held at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary, 3401 S. Highland Drive, Millcreek, UT 84106, on March 25, 2026, from 10:00 am to 10:45 am.

Funeral services will be held at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary at 11:00 am. Livestream: https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/c26031167331073

Interment: Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park