Linda Starck, 76

Linda passed away quietly April 9, 2023, with her family by her side at the Schneidmiller Hospice House in Coeur d'Alene after a stroke and a brief battle with cancer.

Linda was very outgoing and made friends wherever she went. She was known and loved by so many people she met throughout her life; it was hard to go anywhere in town with Linda without running into friends and acquaintances to stop and visit with.

Linda was born in 1947 in Loma Linda, Calif., to Dwayne and Florence and raised in Yucaipa, surrounded by fruit orchards. Her childhood was spent picking and processing fruit, spending time with her grandparents and helping raise her three younger brothers.

Linda was married in 1965 to Robert Starck in Yucaipa, where they lived for several years. Linda worked in a doctor's office for a time until becoming a mom with her first two children, Jan and Steve, and staying home to raise them. In 1974, she and Robert packed up their two small children and moved to North Idaho after having visited family here. A year later, their third child, Brian, was born.

Linda was very much a people person, which is a lot of the reason selling Avon appealed to her. She became an Avon representative in 1982 and was still selling and delivering orders up until her passing. She loved being out and about and visiting her many customers. In 2005, she started working for the warehouse demo service at Costco part-time, in between delivering Avon orders, where she worked until 2022, and she made many more good friends with the people she worked with there.

Linda always strived to stay active and healthy. She enjoyed snow skiing every winter for many years after moving to Coeur d'Alene, she practiced Karate for many years, earning a 2nd-degree black belt, spent several years going to classes at the gym with her daughter to work out and later took up Yoga, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She loved cooking and baking, especially around the holidays, and always liked making great meals to share with her family.

She found so much joy in the simple things she did like playing her piano, planting flowers, spending time at the beach watching the birds and enjoying the sunshine, and she loved watching and feeding the birds that lived around her yard. She spent hours on dark nights staring at planets and stars with her telescope and was very well-read when it came to astronomy and could always point out and name the planets and constellations on a clear night. She had an extensive rock and crystal collection; she loved going to the rock and gem shows every year to find another piece for her collection.

Linda is survived by her daughter, Jan, sons Steve and Brian (Angelina), her mother, Florence, brothers John (Virginia), Gary (Cecille), Byron, and sister-in-law Joyce (Dan). She didn't have any grandchildren of her own but had several wonderful unofficial grandkids who absolutely adored her, and whom she loved as much as if they were her own, Sarah, Chris, Gianna, Sevaria, Sienna, Samantha, Luke and Kiera, as well as a few "grand puppies." She also has many nieces and nephews whom she adored and always tried to keep in touch with. Linda was preceded in death by Robert, father Dwayne, her sister-in-law, Christie (Byron) and her mother and father-in-law, Joe and Frances.

A celebration of life service will be held for Linda on Sunday, Oct. 8 from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. at the Shriners Event Center at 1250 W. Lancaster Road in Hayden.