Linda Leonard Adams

Linda Leonard was born on May 6, 1956, in Jacksonville, Florida, the only daughter and second child to George B. Leonard and Jessie Keeler Leonard. George had grown up in Austell, Georgia, and his wife, Jessie, had grown up in New Jersey. They met during the Second World War, while George was busy climbing towers to set up the radar system for the defense of our country as a civilian for the U.S. Army. When he met Jessie, they fell in love and got married. Eventually, they had a son, George Keeler Leonard, and six years later, their daughter, Linda. They lived on the northside of Jacksonville so their father, George, could be near his office in Hilliard, Fla. Then George B. and the family were sent to Oklahoma City, where he received extended training in radar and engineering. That city, they all remember as being very cold. Linda hated the cold and always loved the sun, as all her friends know. Happily, after George's extended training, they moved back to Jacksonville. Then, tragically, their mother, Jessie, developed cancer. The doctors did the best they could in those times (about 66 years ago) but could not save her. The family was left devastated.

George eventually met Penny Snyder, and they married and became very happy. So, the family now added Penny, "Granny" (Penny's mother, whom all the kids knew as "Granny"), and Penny's young teenage daughter, Teresa. They took trips and vacations and had lots of good times with each other. They spent a lot of summers going to Miami, and even traveled to Europe together.

Linda was a good student in school and had a lot of friends. She was very fun-loving and playful. She eventually graduated, got her high school diploma, and then attended Florida Junior College at Jacksonville.

Around this time, Linda was working as a secretary in a surveyor's office. Her future husband, Steve, started working there, and he was immediately impressed by her sense of humor and how very, very cute she was. He did not work up the courage to ask her out until the last day before he left to go work for another surveyor. That afternoon, she had told Steve that she was going to get together with some old friends that night to play some records, and since Steve knew one of the friends (David) she was going to see, along with David's previous girlfriend, Melody, Steve insisted on coming along to supposedly see his old high school friend. Well, she fell for it, and Steve (her future husband) asked her out that night, and the rest is history.

Linda had great talent with numbers, and she became an accounts receivable clerk. In this capacity, she developed some of the best friends of her life, while still maintaining her friendship with her earliest childhood friends she met on Ribault Scenic Drive and surrounding streets. She was very good at maintaining friendships. All the while, she and her family were maintaining their closeness with her childhood family, getting together with father George, Penny, Teresa and her husband Ron, and their beloved son Chase, and with George, Lynn (his new wife), and his daughters Rebecca and Sarah. Along with loving her family and friends, Linda also fried shrimp, chocolate, Coca-Cola, dogs, and FSU football!

She gave birth to her son Shaun in 1987. Linda's husband, Steve, was always proud of how devoted a mother she was. The following never happened, but if her young son Shaun had accidentally slipped into a cage full of Bengal tigers, she would have stepped in between them, hands on hips, and said: "Okay, just try to get by me". Steve would have felt sorry for the tigers.

If family and friends are considered as riches, (as they are) Linda was rich, and she appreciated both. Everyone was saddened to see Linda get afflicted by the cruel Alzheimer's Disease, but they loved and supported her throughout. She maintained and kept her sweetness and sense of humor as long as she could, until the disease won, as it usually does. She passed feeling the love and support of her family and friends during those last days, for which her husband and Shaun will be forever grateful.

Linda is survived by her loving husband, Steve Adams, and her beloved son, Shaun Adams. She also leaves behind her brother, George K. Leonard, and his wife Lynn; her stepsister, Teresa Hess, and her husband Ron; her nieces, Rebecca and Sarah Leonard; and her stepmother, Penny Leonard.

A service to honor and celebrate the life of Linda L. Adams will be held on Saturday, May 11th, at 10:00 AM at Restlawn Memorial Park.

Arrangements by Hardage-Giddens Rivermead Funeral Home, 127 Blanding Blvd, Orange Park, FL. Please post words of comfort at www.hardage-giddensrivermead.com.