Myra Linde (93) passed away on September 3 in St. Petersburg, FL. She was born Myra Virginia DeVoe in South Amboy, New Jersey on November 20, 1929, to the late Hamilton Kermit and Mamie Virginia Schack DeVoe. She grew up in South River, New Jersey surrounded by a large extended family. When she was young, her father, a mason, built the family a vacation home in Breton Woods, a small town on the Jersey shore. Myra loved spending her summers there, where she made many life-long friends, learned to sail, and water ski, and eventually met her late husband of 56 years, Dr. Harry W. Linde.

As a teenager she aided the war effort in WWII as a member of the Ground Observation Corps, trained to spot foreign aircraft. She was a cheerleader in high school. During the summers she was active racing her Comet sailboat on the Metedeconk River and was a founding member of the Metedeconk River Comet Fleet.

After graduating from South River High School in 1947, Myra attended Cornell University for two years before transferring to the Pennsylvania State College of Optometry (PSCO) in Philadelphia (now Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University) where she graduated with a Doctor of Optometry degree in 1953. She opened her practice in Milltown, NJ and operated it for 6 years. At Cornell, she was active on the sailing team and in the Delta Gamma sorority. Myra was a trailblazer for women: At the time, she was the only woman enrolled at PSCO and she went on to graduate second in her class.  She was also active in the Eastern Star and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1956 she and Harry married and settled in Trenton, NJ. They eventually moved to Gladwyne, PA. In April 1961 they had their first child, Brian Peter, and in November 1966 they welcomed Carolyn Eileen.

In 1964 Myra and Harry moved to Evanston, IL where Harry began a long career at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. Before agreeing to the move Myra insisted that she leave Evanston behind in the summers in favor of spending those months at her beloved Jersey shore home in Breton Woods. And that is what she, Brian and Carolyn did every June through August, with Harry joining them for a week at the beginning and end of each summer. They enjoyed sailing, waterskiing, windsurfing, and boating on the Metedeconk River and Barnegat Bay.

Myra and Harry made Evanston their home for 27 years. During that time Myra, while raising their two children, returned to work as an optometrist and worked at Northwestern University Medical School as an administrative assistant. In addition to going to the Jersey shore in the summers, Myra and Harry took their family to Barbados every February for many years to escape the cold and snowy Illinois winters.

Upon retiring Myra and Harry sold their Evanston home and moved full-time to their Breton Woods, NJ home. They purchased a trawler, named her Carolyn, and spent many years cruising the inter-coastal waterway from New Jersey to Florida. They spent many happy winters in Marathon, FL where they made many friends, especially in the amateur radio community. Eventually they sold Carolyn and the family home in NJ and moved to St. Petersburg, FL full-time to be closer to Brian and family. Myra was always the navigator, keeping them going in the right direction on sea and land, and she took great pleasure in documenting their journeys, filling many pages of photo albums over the years with pictures and detailed descriptions of their travels.

Throughout all her moves and travels Myra always made friends, many of whom she kept in touch with until recently. She cherished her monthly calls and annual trips with her Cornell sorority sisters. Her family and friends will lovingly remember her as a caring and independent-minded woman who enjoyed the quiet activities of reading a good book or doing needlepoint as much as she loved embarking on new adventures, whether it be scuba-diving, traveling overseas, or learning to windsurf at 50.

In her later years she loved spending time with her grandchildren; reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid books with Mark and Sasha, listening to Ilya play the piano and joining him learning his pieces. She was always so anxious waiting for Carolyn to send her the yearly calendars with all the kids' pictures inside. She delighted in learning about all her grandchildren and was amazed by everything they did. So many times, she would explain how “neat” things were, even the smallest things.

She spent the last years of her life at the Masonic Home in St. Petersburg, FL.

Myra was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and sister, Diane DeVoe. She is survived by her son, Brian Linde; daughter in-law, Kate McConeghy Linde; daughter, Carolyn Linde Johnson; son in-law, Ken Johnson; and 9 grandchildren: Kira Linde, Emily Aggarwal -Linde (Tarun), Katya Linde, Mark Linde, Sasha Linde, Ilya Linde, Audrey Johnson, Marina Johnson, and Katherine Johnson. 

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