Linda Grace Pastor Winder
Linda Grace Pastor Winder
1942 – 2022
Linda Grace Pastor was born in 1942 in New Jersey to Leslie Pastor and Emma Pastor. When she was three years old the family moved to East Orange New Jersey to a spacious brick home on a lot which had space for a large vegetable garden and a few animals. Her father was an enthusiastic gardener who passed his love for growing things on to Linda. When Linda was eight years old, missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came by their home in East Orange. After originally purposely not answering the door when the Elders returned for an appointment, her mother was surprised by another unannounced visit. This time she listened and in January of 1951 she was baptized. Linda was baptized in March of the same year. Linda loved attending this new church where everyone was friendly and the teachers were kind. She enjoyed singing the hymns, especially “Scatter Sunshine” and “There is Sunshine in my Soul Today.”
In 1950, they moved to a new home on a wooded lot in Livingston, New Jersey. Her father continued his interest in farming, raising a large garden, continuing to have chickens, and adding sheep, goats, and a dog. Linda enjoyed helping her father in this new farming adventure. She learned how to drive the tractor and helped her father pull tree stumps to clear a pasture for the sheep.
Linda loved going to summer camp at Camp Good News, Cape Cod, MA for four summers beginning when she was 10 years old. This was a camp with a Christian theme, so she learned to sing traditional Christian songs and also memorized scriptures from the New Testament as well as learning to swim and acquiring canoeing and row boating skills. Linda’s parents enjoyed traveling and they did four-week cross country automobile trips through the Canadian Rockies, Colorado Rockies, the Grand Canyon, and national parks.
Linda obtained her secondary education at Livingston High School where she enjoyed the sciences, especially geology. She was an editor for the high school yearbook. She loved to read, sometimes at the expense of neglecting her other studies. She graduated from high school in 1960 and that fall enrolled in the Honors program at Brigham Young University. She began her studies majoring in Nutrition, but changed her major to Homemaking Education, the field wherein she obtained her B.S. degree in 1964.
It was at Brigham Young University that she met her future husband, William Wallace Winder, Jr. They became engaged in September 1961 after Linda returned from summer vacation at her home in New Jersey. The marriage was delayed until after Will returned from his mission in South Africa. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1964.
After Will graduated with his degree in 1971, they moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he did research at Washington University School of Medicine until September 1979. They then moved to Vermillion, South Dakota for three years where Will taught at the University of South Dakota Medical School before moving back to Provo, where Will served as a faculty member at Brigham Young University until 2012.
Linda loved to garden and soon had apple, pear, cherry, peach, and plum trees planted around the perimeter of the yard in Provo. She also had beautiful flower gardens, especially her irises, several of which were grown from tubers from her father’s gardens. She continued her gardening efforts when they moved to American Fork in 2009. One year she was honored with the Most Beautiful Yard of the Month award from American Fork City. Her flowers were admired by neighbors and passersby every spring.
Linda was very busy rearing her eight children, but managed to serve faithfully in many church assignments, including primary teacher, primary president, girls camp leader, young women’s leader, Cub Scout leader, Eagle Scout coach, and temple worker in the Provo Temple. She served a full-time mission in the mission office of the California Santa Rosa Mission with her husband from September 2012 until May 2014. She had a life-long interest in family history work and spent countless hours collecting information on her ancestors and completing the temple work for them. She served in the Family History Center part time while on her mission to Santa Rosa, California.
She was always happy to have the grandchildren visit and had a huge stock of toys and books for their entertainment. Even more popular were the raspberries and blackberries in her gardens. When grandchildren visited in the spring and summer, they scrounged a plastic cup and headed directly to the garden to pick berries. Her numerous fruit trees provided plums, pears, cherries, peaches, and apples and were pruned so the grandchildren could reach the fruit. She loved the young friends of her children and always made visitors welcome. After the children left the nest, Linda and Will were able to travel internationally together, attending scientific meetings in Korea, China, Denmark, Scotland, and Australia.
Linda is survived by her husband, her brother Robert E. Pastor, eight children, William L., Randall K. (Toni), Keith A. (Riqelle), Brent R. (Julie), Steven W. (Sabrina), Laurie W. Nielson, Daniel R. (Charolette) and Dorothy W. Gerhart (Daniel), 39 grandchildren, and one great granddaughter. In spite of health challenges in later years, she maintained her sense of humor and cheerfully attended weddings of grandchildren and other family events whenever possible.
The family expresses appreciation to the hospice nurses and aids of First Choice Home Health and Hospice who lovingly cared for Linda the last two years of her life. Thanks also to the administrators and staff at Highland Glen Assisted Living who provided care since September of 2020.
Funeral services for Linda will be held on Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 11:00 am in the Edgemont 21st Ward Chapel, located at 2900 North 650 East, Provo, Utah. Family and friends may call Friday evening from 6:00-8:00 pm at the Warenski Funeral Home, 1776 North 900 East, American Fork, Utah and also at an additional viewing on Saturday morning from 9:30-10:30 am prior to services at the church. Interment will be at East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery. In lieu of flowers consider a contribution to the general missionary fund of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.