Linda S. Hart

Linda S. Hart

(August 23, 1947 – January 22, 2023)

Linda Sue Frost Hart, 75, of Strasburg, Illinois, died January 22, 2023, in Shelbyville, Illinois.

Linda was born on August 23, 1947, to Charles Walter Frost and Anna Mae Robertson Frost in Rockville, Indiana. She married Larry L. Hart on May 26, 1968, and they had a happy 35 years of marriage until Larry’s passing in 2003.

Linda grew up in and loved Rockville, the home of the Covered Bridge Festival, which she attended every year she could. After graduating from Rockville High School she moved to Illinois to attend Eastern Illinois University. She then began teaching Jr. High English at Stew-Stras which she did for thirty-three years.

Linda requested I, her daughter, write her obituary. Some people are too special to sum up in a few paragraphs, and my mother was one of them, but I’ll try.

My mother’s true love was being at home with her family. When mom and dad built their new house several years ago she designed and planned the inside herself. She kept the yards beautiful with her gardens and flowerbeds. She loved nothing more than being in her backyard or on the deck in the evenings watching the squirrels and hummingbirds. During her illness, when she could no longer get outside, she still watched her squirrels and birds out the window and was happy to see one last little bit of snow.

My mom was an artist who could paint, sculpt, quilt, sew, and make anything she set her mind to. She loved decorating her home and entertaining friends. She also loved reading and traveling and we visited almost every state and some foreign countries.

My mother was a fierce advocate for those she loved and the smartest person I’ve ever known. And the most talented. And the funniest.

Our humor helped get us through seven years of the long goodbye of vascular dementia. We were always able to laugh and enjoy each other’s company, and in a great blessing from God she never forgot who I was. I am so grateful I was able to keep her home all but the last few weeks of her life. She was a wonderful mother who not only taught me how to live with courage but how to die with courage as well.

We are sad to say the final goodbye to mom, but I am happy for her that she is now re-united with the husband she has missed so very much. She also joins her mother and father, and her beloved sisters Mary Lana Livengood and Charlie Beasley.

She is survived by her daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and granddog Gordon of Strasburg, IL; brother Wally Frost and wife Kathy of Strasburg, IL; sister Judy Radloff and husband John of Strasburg, IL; brothers-in-law Marvin Beasley of West Bloomfield, MI and Larry Gossett of  Rockville, IN; nephews Lewis Gossett, Charles Gossett, Jamie Welch, Ike Beasley, Frost Beasley, Trey Frost, and Taylor Frost; niece Christa Welch; great-nephews James Bales, Kenton Frost and Trevor Mace; great-nieces Emily Gossett, Sara Gossett, Brinley Frost, Blake Frost, Rowan Frost, Eva Frost, and Emma Frost; and great-great-niece Eliana.

A private service will be held on Thursday, January 26, 2023 with burial following in Dodge Grove Cemetery in Mattoon, IL.  Arrangements are by Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville, IL.  Memorials may be given to the American Heart Association or Saving Orphaned Animals in Shelby County and mailed to Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, 415 N. Broadway, Shelbyville, IL 62565. Send condolences at www.howeandyockey.com

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.