Linda L. Allen

Linda L. Allen, born Linda Lee Riegel, age 73, passed away in Bellingham, WA on March 17, 2014. Linda was born in Spokane, Washington and graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 1958. Her literary inklings began at that time as she published a regularly occurring article called Riegel’s Roundup in the Lewis and Clark Journal. After graduation and a time as a student at Washington State University, she had an adventurous year abroad in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her free spirit then took her to live for twelve years as a beatnik in San Francisco. She traveled abroad avidly, had a vigorous social life and was co-owner of a restaurant in Sausalito, where she and her business partner and best friend, Cathie Jetton, were a force on the scene with their beautiful, brilliant and glamorous bombshell personas. She eventually moved close to her sister, Bonnie, to raise her two children, Laura and Cathie. She confided that the best time of her life was raising her two baby girls in Lake Chelan. Her academic yearnings called so she packed up her girls and moved to Cheney, Washington to earn two Bachelor’s Degrees from Eastern Washington University, one in General Studies and the other in Anthropology. She and her girls then moved to Bellingham, Washington and at 50 years of age she received a Master’s Degree in Anthology from Western Washington University. Her research at the Maple Alley Inn Soup kitchen, paying the diners five dollars each for an interview, resulted in her Master’s thesis called Survival Strategies of the Homeless Mentally Ill, available at the Western Washington University library. One of her favorite memories of college was teaching Anatomy classes as a Teacher’s Assistant. She is the recipient of a Certificate of Distinguished Achievement in the field of Anthropology from Lambda Alpha, National Honor Society for Anthropology. She also enjoyed her career as a real estate agent in Bellingham and particularly relished working with her clients. She estimated she sold an average of one house a month for 23 years. In her 60’s she had a determination to do something more with her education, hence her career as an author was born, as was the Jozie Hunter Mystery series; Bellingham Homicide, Bellingham Betrayal and Bellingham Dead Ahead (available at lulu.com). Jozie was a sometimes sleuth, real estate agent, with a criminal forensics background, which Linda created to allow her to use her education in a less conventional, more aesthetic way. She dedicated her first book, “To my sister Bonnie, with love” her second book, “To Laura and Cathie, with love” and her third book, “This book is dedicated to the class of 1958, Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane, Washington, with fond memories from Linda Riegel Allen.” Linda was a long time Bellingham Unitarian Universalist member and a member of Women’s Alliance. She served as the president of Women’s Alliance for a number of years and was also on the Membership Committee. Linda loved garage sales, crafting, doing book reading events in the community and as she often said, she was born to love cats. She was a member of the Rosewood Villa community for three years and enjoyed gardening at Rosewood Villa with her daughter, visiting Marine Park and Boulevard Park, listening to the birds and having a decaf latte. She is preceded in death by her mother, Ludena Ruth (Willie) Riegel and Jack Frank Riegel. She will be greatly missed by her daughters Cathie (Jason) Haag, Laura Hunter, granddaughters, Isabelle and Victoria, sister, Bonnie (Gordon) Cannon-Cammack, life long friend, Wendell Page DDS, and nieces Linda (Ian) Cannon and Leslie (Timothy) Fichtner and all of her friends. In Lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Maple Alley Inn Soup Kitchen, 1207 Ellsworth St, Bellingham, WA 98225. A celebration of Linda’s life will be held at Linda’s daughter’s house at 2 PM on April 12^th. Contact cathiethisandthat@yahoo.com for directions.