Linda Sue Tarbet
Linda Sue Tarbet
Linda Sue Tarbet went to be with her Lord on ursday, April 13, 2017, passing peacefully at home with her family at her side, after a long battle with cancer. All who knew Linda were impressed with how wonderful, cheerful, and loving she was. She was loved very dearly by all those who knew her and she will be profoundly missed
Linda was born in Crockett, Texas on March 31st, 1950 to Lt. Cmdr. Jimmie Whitten and wife, Lonnie Mae Whitten, joining three older sisters; Virginia Lee, Jeanie Kay, and Barbara Ann. Linda’s father was a career naval o cer, causing the family to move to many locations during Linda’s childhood and school years. e family lived in Millington, Tenneessee; Chincoteague, Virginia; Palo Alto, California; Ewa Beach & Iriqouis Point Hawaii; Alameda and Santa Clara, California; and nally in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she graduated from King High School, then worked for Oscar Wyatt at Coastal States Gas Producing Company while attending Delmar College.
During her childhood, Linda worked very hard and became quite an accomplished swimmer during her years in Hawaii, being named the NAAC Outstanding National Freestyle Age Group Champion for 1960. Also, she was winner of the Outstanding Swim- mer Award in the 1959 International Invitational, Pearl Harbor age group, and Hickham Air Force Swim Meets for 1960, as well as setting several records at the Junior Olympics on Kawaii Island in 1959. After moving to California, she swam for the Alameda Swim Club, then moved to Santa Clara, joining the Santa Clara Swim Team with Mark Spitz and Donna de Varona. Her husband, Sam, has a very large box of her swimming medals and says Linda bragged about beating Mark from time to time. At the age of 14, Linda attended the 1964 Olympic Trials with the Santa Clara Swim Team, described by Life Magazine as the ”Swimming Might of Santa Clara”. Linda qualified for the Olympic Team, but couldn’t win parental approval for the trip to Tokyo.
As fate would have it, Linda decided to move to Austin, Texas in December of 1972, the very same month that Sam Tarbet moved there and met up with Bob Lester, a college friend from Abilene that also had just moved to Austin. Sam and Bob shared an apartment together, and Linda began to work at the same office where Bob was employed. With Sam often talking to Bob on the phone, and Linda answering, Sam quickly began talking less to Bob and more to Linda. On February 22, 1973, Sam and Linda mutually agreed to a blind date for dinner at the Night Hawk Steak House in Austin, and, as they say...”the rest is history”. Sam and Linda were married at the Austin Presbyterian Seminary Chapel on July 26, 1975 with Bob Lester serving as Best Man. Sam had already begun his career at Horseshoe Bay, working for Norman and Wayne Hurd. Sam and Linda moved to Horseshoe Bay in 1976, purchasingtheir first home; Unit 101 at High Vista Condominiums. They thenmoved to“ The Oaks Condo miniums” and received the gift of their first son, Samuel Justin, on January 12, 1978. They built their first real home at 17015 Nimrod in 1979, joined there by their second son, Jonathan David, born September 6, 1979, and third son, Benjamin Wade being born June 17, 1982.
Linda dedicated her life as a volunteer at her church, the Marble Falls Church of Christ, and at the Marble Falls Schools, being a room mother for all her boys for many years, as well as multitudesof other boys and girls that still remember Linda to this day. She was always known for her lavish parties and delicious cookies!
Sam and Linda attended the Marble Falls Church of Christ for 30 years where Linda was well known for the year end parties for the high school kids, along with many other members that worked very hard in that effort. Many now “grown up” boys and girls remember those parties very well. Sam and Linda have been members of the Lake Country Church of Christ in Marble Falls for the past 11 years, continuing her tireless effort as a volunteer, spreading joy and happiness wherever she was.
Linda leaves behind many friends from her beautiful life of service to others, and as an exceptional loving and caring mother to her three sons, and a tirelessly loving and supporting wife to Sam, her husband of almost 42 years. She is preceded in death by her father, Lt. Cmdr. Ret. Jimmie Whitten; older sister Virginia Lee (“Gina”) Macdonald and husband Andrew Macdonald. Linda is survived by her husband Sam of Horseshoe Bay; son Justin and wife Lauren of Pflugerville, and their daughter Madison Brooke (Linda’s only grandaughter); son Jonathan of Horseshoe Bay; and son Benjamin of Marble Falls. She is also survived by her mother, Lonnie Mae Whitten of Austin; sister Jeanie Lee and husband Charles, of Austin; sister Barbara of Austin; nephew Jason Duval and wife Lauren with their three sons, Luke, Nathan, and Grant, of Dripping Springs; and neice Sarah Wellborn and husband Jason with their three sons, Jordan, Jimmie, and William of Hahira, Georgia. She is also survived by many in-laws, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews of theTarbet family by virtue of her marriage to Sam, who all love and cherish her.
A memorial service will be held at the Marble Falls Church of Christ at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 22, 2017, located at 711 Broadway, Marble Falls.
A short graveside service will follow at Lakeland Hills Memorial Park, 4219 Park Road 4, just north of Marble Falls. there will also be a family visitation held on Friday, April 21, 2017 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Clements-Wilcox Funeral Home, 1805 Highway281 N. in Marble Falls.
