Linda LaMae (Dahl) Daniels

Linda LaMae Daniels passed peacefully on May 20, 2025, in Longview, Texas, at the age of 103 years. She was born July 17, 1921, to Maurice and Louise (Sinrud) Dahl in York County, Wisconsin. At the age of four, Linda was adopted by her Uncle Clarence and Aunt Josie (Dahl) Nyre. She spent the rest of her childhood and graduated from high school in Carpio, North Dakota. Throughout her life, she lived in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, California, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Washington, and Texas.

In her youth, Linda worked various jobs, including a mangle iron attendant, telephone operator, bookkeeper, and waitress. During World War II, she worked at Douglas Aircraft, where she performed electrical work on the C-47 Skytrain and installed the bomb site on the A-24 bomber prototype. After WWII, for a short time, she sold “Coney Dogs” on Long Beach Pike, and then decided to move to Chicago with her sister. Linda worked at a radio manufacturing company while she took a speed writing course at business school and eventually secured a job in an accounting office. A year later, she returned to Southern California, attended court reporting and business school, and worked for Allstate Insurance Company for seven years. During this time, Linda married Raymond Norwood Daniels on January 21, 1955. They were together for 15 years before he passed away in 1970.

Linda raised her family and eventually became employed at the Farmersville Schools as a teacher’s aide. She enjoyed her time there and taught many children how to read. After retirement in 1989, she moved to Visalia, California, and continued as a church pianist. Her retirement was spent working part-time, as well as volunteering at church, the local school, and nursing homes. She enjoyed cooking, playing table games, garage sales, camping in the mountains, oil and watercolor painting, refurbishing lamps, playing piano, decorating wedding cakes, and floral arranging. Linda traveled to many places across the United States and internationally to England and Wales. She lived independently until age 97 when she moved to Texas.

Exercising both mind and body was important to Linda. She walked every day either outside or up and down the hallway. Suduko puzzles were her favorite daily mind exercise. Chocolate and ice cream were Linda’s food indulgences. Chocolate made her cough so she didn’t eat it on airplanes. Coffee was a necessity every morning. Even in her last years, Linda couldn’t pass a piano without stopping to play some lively music. The set usually began with the swing song The Darktown Strutters Ball and included a version of Amazing Grace.

At Linda’s 100th birthday party, she commented, “I don’t know why I have lived so long. Either God has something for me to learn or something for me to teach, maybe a little of both.” Some of her last words of wisdom at age 103 were “Always keep learning.”

Linda is survived by her six children, Garth (Sandy) Daniels, Roger (Linda) Daniels, Kathy Daniels, Raymond (Kristy) Daniels, Phillip (Linda) Daniels, Patricia (Marvin) Hicks, 18 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and 5 great-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services and visitation will be held on May 27th in Visalia, California. Visitation will be at 11:00 am at Miller Memorial Chapel, and a graveside service will be at the Visalia Cemetery at 1:00 pm. There will be a memorial service held in Longview, Texas at a later date.