Linda Ann Brooks
Linda Ann Brooks, 84, a long-time resident of Mentor, Ohio, passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday, May 19, 2022 at Anthology Senior Living in Mayfield Heights, OH. Linda was born on December 8, 1938 in Bay Village, OH to Paul B. And Katherine A. (Kaltenmark) Baldwin.She is survived by three sons: James Stifler (Karin), Hudson, OH, Thomas Stifler (Linda), Berkeley, CA and Michael (Meg) Stifler, Mayfield Village, OH; four grandsons: Nathan Stifler, Los Angeles, CA, Colin Stifler, Charlotte, NC, Ryan Stifler, Los Angeles, CA. and Paul Stifler, Mayfield Village, OH, and a brother, James Baldwin of Lexington, MA. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Joseph Brooks.
Linda will be remembered as an enthusiastic athlete, legendary middle school teacher and meticulous housekeeper. When she was eight years old, her father moved the family from Bay Village, Ohio to Dearborn, Michigan where she took up golf at an early age. She became a junior champion in the City of Detroit by age 15. She married three years later and became a full time mother with three sons and no time for golf. In her 40’s she became a dedicated distance runner and won her age group multiple times in the News Herald Johnnycake Jog, her favorite local running event. Later in life, after earning her teaching degree at Lake Erie College Linda was a much loved middle school teacher of science, social studies and language arts from 1981 to 2008 at the Phillips Osborne School, now the Andrews Osborne Academy in Willoughby, OH. She was passionate about her work and encouraging seventh and eighth graders. She spearheaded the school’s participation in the statewide writing competition, Power of the Pen, resulting in numerous state winners for the school. So respected as a coach, she was ultimately chosen to be a judge in the competition.She was creative and dedicated in her efforts to bring life’s realities to her students. One day her students might find themselves at the town dump or the water works plant watching the miracle of purified drinking water happen. She wanted her students to learn about the environment and human responsibility for it. On another day they might attend a trial in a Painesville city courtroom. Wherever she took them, they would have to write about it. No student could leave her language arts classroom without knowing how to construct an essay.
When she wasn’t teaching, running or housekeeping—she loved shopping and had an eye for beautiful clothes—Linda was keeping a spotlessly clean house, her sons often complaining that it was like growing up in a museum. It has been said that Linda trained the family dog to wipe its paws on the rug outside the back door before he dared to enter her house. Her sons joke that she had more success with the dog than them.Linda was a genuine people person with a giving soul that made her many treasured friends feel important and loved. As she declined in health toward the end of her life, when she felt fearful and lost, she was so grateful for all those friends who returned those feelings to her with their generous time, love and support. She will be remembered with love.In her later years, Linda became a devout Christian and an active member of the Trinity Baptist Church congregation, finding much fulfillment, calm and deep friendship there.
So it is only fitting that a memorial service in her honor be held there, 9225 Johnnycake Ridge Road, Mentor, OH, on June 23 at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Hospice of the Western Reserve 17876 St.Clair Ave. Cleveland, Oh. 44110 or Andrews Osborne Academy, 38588 Mentor Ave. Mentor, Oh. 44094