Linda Pearson

Linda Pearson, 73, died November 26, 2021, while out for a walk with her Maltese rescue dog, Precious (aka, Angel). Linda was born six weeks premature to Howard T. Pickett Jr. and Meta Helen (Barnett) Pickett on June 3, 1948, in Fort Scott, KS. Even with a birthweight of less than 6 pounds, Linda was tiny but mighty, and fought her way back to life after a collapsed lung required her to stay in the hospital several weeks after her mother had been discharged. Her mother, Meta, once remarked that leaving Linda at the hospital was one of the hardest things she'd ever done.

Linda eventually made a full recovery and returned to the family home in Fulton, KS, where she was greeted by a five-year-old sister, Saundra Sue. Linda was doted on and soon grew into the fattest-cheeked cherubic baby you ever did see. At that time, the Pickett family owned and operated the local telephone company. One of the most important jobs of the phone company back then was to sound the alarm to alert the town in case of fire or other emergencies. When their brother, Tom, was born, 5-year-old Linda and 10-year-old Sue took it upon themselves to sound the alarm and alert the entire town about his birth. This was known as the first electric birth announcement.

Around that time, there was increasing demand for electricians to aid in the building of dams along the Columbia River in Washington State. So, in 1957 the Pickett family sold the phone company, and along with four other families from Kansas, pulled up stakes and emigrated to Quincy in Central Washington. While in Quincy, Linda was actively involved in many organizations, including cheerleading, Camp Fire, Rainbow Girls, and Eastern Star. She graduated from Quincy High School in 1966, and after a brief period at Central Washington State College, Linda left home to pursue her dream of becoming a flight attendant.

In 1968, she was invited to join Dallas-based Braniff International, famous for its brightly patterned uniforms and accessories designed by the world-famous Emilio Pucci. (Thankfully, she kept some of the clothes!)

In 1971, a friend invited her to the basement prayer meeting of A.W. and Vinita Copeland, parents of renowned evangelist Kenneth Copeland, where she was baptized with the Holy Spirit and committed her life to loving Jesus.

After a five-year marriage that produced son, Josh T. Pearson, and daughter, Shashana Lyn Pearson, Linda returned to Washington State, where the family of three lived for the next 4 years. During their time there, the family experienced many memory-making events, not the least of which was the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.

In 1982, Linda, Josh, and Shashana moved back to the North Texas area, and settled in Keller. During the early to mid-80s, Linda pursued various careers, including sales for Christian radio station KPBC, and as a film and television actress, which landed her background roles in a Superbowl commercial and on two episodes of 1980s megahit, Dallas, among others. She often told the story that while on the set of Dallas, Larry Hagman would wear a hat with a battery-operated fan to combat the heat. And one time, Patrick Duffy stopped to tell her that the top button at the nape of her neck was unbuttoned (she swooned a bit over that one).

Linda was later hired to work for the second incarnation of Braniff International, this time as a supervisor in charge of training flight attendants. This position would later serve as the foundation for the company she started in 1988 called SafeAir Services. Through SafeAir she taught passenger-safety training to frequent flyers and corporate travelers such as the staff and executives from JC Penney and Texas Instruments using the mockup fuselage of an airplane cabin that she bought and reconstructed with her own hands. Through her work with SafeAir, she produced a training video called Traveling with Confidence and garnered enough attention to be featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, and Towne & Country and Details magazines. Linda was also a featured guest on a 1992 safety episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show. By around 1996, she had dissolved SafeAir, working briefly as a flight-safety consultant before transitioning into a technical writer, where she spent the rest of her career.

Writing of any sort was always Linda's passion and remained so her entire life. She completed several manuscripts, screenplays, a fully formed musical about Queen Esther called For Such a Time as This, as well as a spoken-word performance called On the Wings of the Wind.

Linda was a bigger-than-life character, a devout Christian, a gardener, an inventor, a survivalist, a creative, a loving dog mom, a devoted grandmother. We are so grateful that she was able to know and love her grandchildren so well, taking them on walks at the lake, to tour the Dallas Cowboys stadium, attending all their special events, and making Christmas extra special. They will forever benefit from having known and loved her well. There was nobody like her, and there will never be again. All the good parts of her will continue on through them. They are her legacy.

Linda is survived by her son Josh T. Pearson (Austin, TX); daughter Shashana Pearson-Hormillosa (Dallas, TX) and husband Tony Hormillosa, granddaughter Floriana, and grandson Eliah; sister Sandee Kirkwood (Richfield, WA) and husband Al; brother Tom Pickett (Richland, WA) and wife Nancy; nieces, nephews, friends, and a myriad of grands-in-law who affectionately called her Nana Linda. She was deeply loved and will be deeply, deeply missed.

If desired, memorials may be made in her name to the North Texas Food Bank (https://give.ntfb.org) or East Lake Pet Orphanage (https://www.eastlakepetorphanage.com/donate).