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Senior Photo Quote:
"God's rarest blessing is a good woman"
High School Activites: Honor Society, Foreign Language Club
 BURGER, Linda Louise (Age 58) Linda passed away March 23, 2010 in Spokane, WA after a year long battle with Breast Cancer. She was born August 16, 1951 in Bellevue, WA to Harley and Louise Smith, she resided in Spokane, WA from the age of five. She attended Mead High School, graduating in 1969; andattended Whitworth College, receiving her B.A. in Spanish in 1973. She married Dan Burger in1973 in Spokane. They had one child, Elise Burger (Harris.). Linda was a private piano teacher for 35 years. Her love of teaching prompted her to receive a B.A. in Piano Pedagogy from Whitworth in 1996. Linda was an active member of the Spokane Music Teachers Association. She volunteered in many roles including membership chair, certification chair and Chapter President from 1997-1999. She was also active in the National Music Teachers Association, attending multiple conventions and serving as a Northwest Certification Commissioner from 2007-2009. Linda recently received the honor of being named a MTNA fellow. To be named a fellow, donations were made to the MTNA Foundation Fund in Linda's name. Donations can still be made in her name through MTNA. Linda was very active attending and playing piano at Hillyard Baptist Church and Whitworth Presbyterian Church. She was dearly loved by her family and large circle of friends. Some of her favorite activities included traveling with her husband, monthly dinners with her dinner club, cooking gourmet meals, performing with fellow piano teachers and goodconversation. A dear friend spoke of Linda saying "You can't meet Linda and not love her!" Linda is survived by husband, Dan Burger, daughter, Elise Harris, son-in-law, Matthew Harris; mother, Louise Smith, brother, Frank (Cyndi) Smith and sister, Vickie (Tom) Novak and her extended family: Harry and Bernice Burger, Ken and Patsy Burger, Joe and Janiece Quezada. A memorial service will be held Friday, April 2, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.at Whitworth Community Presbyterian Church, 312 W. Hawthorne Rd. Memorial contributions may be made in Linda's name to the SpokaneHumane Society, PO Box 6247, Spokane WA 99217. Please sign Linda'sonline guestbook at www.hennesseyfuneralhomes.com.
Published in Spokesman-Review from March 28 to March 29, 2010
To View Linda's Profile Page click on the link below
http://www.meadhighschool1969.com/class_profile.cfm?member_id=1148578&viewlastprofile=y
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Roger Libby
I did not know Linda very well, but it is obvious from the comments of others that she was a lovely and extroadinary person. I know that her passing will leave a tremendous void in the hearts of family and friends. The Class of '69 has lost yet another special soul. My deepest condolences to her family.Cheryl Sletten (Lovett)
On the WINGS OF DEATHthe soul takes flight
Into the land where
"THERE IS NO NIGHT"---
For those who believe
what the Saviour said
Will rise in glory
though they are dead....
So death comes to us
just to "OPEN THE DOOR"
To the KINGDOM OF GOD
and LIFE EVERMORE
by Helen Steiner Rice
She was a dear friend. Hopefully we'll meet again. Her horizons have greatly broadened through life.
Linda was truly one of a kind-she was so angellic with a special sort of inner beauty. God be with her family during this time.
I'm so thankful that she was able to come to our class reunion last summer and the ladies alumni luncheons. Peace be with you, Linda. Blessings. . .
Charlene Faoro
I feel very grateful and blessed for the opportunity I had this last year to see and talk to Linda so many years after high school graduation. When I think of Linda, the words grace, dignity and inner beauty come to mind. Any time we would talk, I would remind her I was always available to give any assistance needed. However, she gave me much more....an insight into a beautiful soul and human being. Thank you LindaCharlene Faoro
Laurie Wiley (Vandervert)
I lived right down the street from Linda our whole growing up life. Road the school bus together. The one thing I do remember is watching Twilight Zone together on Friday nights. Playing hide and seek with our friends in the neighborhood. We were inseparable for severl years. She was a great friend and pal. God Bless her.Charlene Bower (Goddard)
I remember Linda's sweet personality back in our high school days. Regrettably I did not know her well but I have heard so many wonderful things about her. I am praying for her husband and daughter. In deepest sympathy, Charlene GoddardSteve Buckley
My husband, Steve Buckley, was Linda's classmate. My first and only visit with Linda was at the 40th reunion this past summer. She was a lady of grace, tempered by the fire of her battle with cancer, truly a vessel of honor for God. I was touched by her beauty, hope, joy, peace and am honored that God gifted me with that brief moment in time. May you go through this time of loss and grief held in the crucible of God's heart.Donna Buckley
Kathy Clark (Moore)
Unfortunately I didn't know Linda very well, but I am SO glad to have had the chance to see her and chat even for a few minutes at our reunion last summer. Sometimes God gives us little reminders of His great love for us in the form of the people in our lives. What a blessing to know that she is now in the arms of the Saviour, just waiting for us to join her in the next reunion.Marc Martyn
After 4 decades, it is a bit bewildering to me how a person can become ingrained in my memory. Although I knew Linda only by acquaintance, I vividly remember her as carrying herself with grace, being somewhat shy and having a very infectious smile. Seeing her at the reunion again was a real pleasure. She was such a wonderful lady.Mary Laws (Reno)
I was not well acquainted, but I agree, such a beautiful woman. It is with a heavy heart that we have lost someone too soon, who posessed such a lovely soul. Along with her loved ones, we in the class of 1969 will miss her.Ronna Jones (Snyder)
At the request of others, I'm posting an e-mail to the class that I felt led to write after attending Linda's incredible memorial service. Here it is:Today, while awaiting my children's arrival for Easter and relishing in yet another annual family gathering, I'm also pondering the deeper things in life. Easter does that to some of us. Funerals do too.
Especially memorial services like the one I attended this week for our departed classmate, Linda Smith Burger. Hers was a funeral unlike most I've attended. Those were perfunctory. A closing of the last pages on a person's life. But Linda's? It was personal. Passion-filled. And like, literally, opening the pages of her life.
As I sat high up in the balcony (it was basically standing room only at Whitworth Presbyterian Church), I thought to myself, "Wow, if you want to REALLY get to know a person, go to their funeral."
While I'd gotten to know Linda a little bit at our monthly Pantherette luncheons, it was, ironically, her funeral, her memorial service, that made me feel like I really, truly KNEW the girl. And I marveled at what a rich, rich life she led. When I walked out of her service, I thought to myself, "I want to LIVE like THAT!"
The common thread amongst the many speakers who memorialized Linda? She was a woman who had lifelong---I mean REALLY lifelong--friendships. She'd gone to the same church, Hillyard Baptist, since she was a young girl. And when she found a friend, made a friend, she didn't give them up easily. Most of her friends were women she'd known for decades. She and her husband had attended the same monthly "dinner club" with other couples for fifteen years! She'd gone to the same Bible studies for even more decades. Can you imagine how WELL you'd get to know people, love people, if you nurtured relationships like Linda did?
Ask any one of the women who frequent the Pantherette luncheons and I'm sure you'll hear that Linda and her elegant battle against breast cancer was an inspiration to us all. I marveled at her quiet, peaceful beauty each time she joined us. A beauty that wasn't marred, or diminished in the least, by that dreaded disease. If anything, it made her even MORE comely. More radiant. And, through her memorial service, I learned what I'd long suspected--that Linda's faith was the flame behind that radiance.
This wasn't some whitewashed little lambie-pie Christianese. This was a deep, abiding, blooming, real faith that guided this girl throughout her years at Mead High School and then on into adulthood, motherhood, womanhood. How graciously that faith colored her life, painting it in the vibrant colors of love.
Yes, Linda was deeply, dearly loved. The hundreds in that church that day attested to that. And she deeply, dearly loved. Her God first, and then anyone else who was blessed enough to bump into her on this jumbled up railroad of life.
But it was clear that it was the WAY Linda loved that was so unique, so...well.....inspiring. Plain and simple, the girl loved longterm and lavishly.
And it made me think about all the people I have known (and also loved) throughout my years on planet earth.
Do I still connect up with them? Do I cultivate friendships in a rich and real way that doesn't just pick and choose friends like the "flavor of the month"? And then swap them out when another flavor comes along that tastes ever so much better? In other words, am I "Linda-like" in my love?
I'll think about that while I carve the Easter ham and dwell on a far greater love that was exhibited some 2000 years ago. And I'll forever remember Linda's memorial service---and the privilege it was for me to go. May we all finish the race even half as well as Linda.