Linda Jo Montgomery, 79, of Waynesboro, Virginia, passed away at home March 21, 2022, with her husband by her side. Her funeral will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, March 30, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. Private burial will take place at Riverview Cemetery in Waynesboro. Linda was born October 13, 1942 in Portland, Oregon to Joseph Benjamin and Velma Marie (Swing) Hoffmann. Her parents had moved from Illinois to Idaho in 1940, then to Portland in May 1942, where Joe worked in the shipyards as a welder. In 1943 the family returned to Idaho, first to Kuna, then to a farm outside Caldwell, then to Caldwell itself to a house on Canyon Hill in 1947.

Linda met her future husband, Ted Montgomery, in 1948 when they were in the same first grade class. They started dating while attending Caldwell High School, and Ted was Linda's escort when she was elected CHS Homecoming Queen in 1959. Both graduated from Caldwell High School in 1960, and Linda attended one semester at the College of Idaho as well as business courses at Link's School of Business. Linda and Ted were married August 26, 1961 at Grace Lutheran Church in Caldwell.

Over the next ten years Linda and Ted lived mainly in Caldwell, buying a house on Canyon Hill two blocks from where Linda had grown up. Two years were spent away from Idaho while Ted was stationed in Texas and Georgia while serving in the Army. After returning to Caldwell, their two children, Matt and Megan, were born. Linda spent most of the next 20 years as a homemaker and stay-at-home mom. After her children were in high school she worked as a Sunday School Superintendent at Grace Lutheran Church, then as a part-time teacher's and reading aide at Lincoln Elementary in Caldwell. She also did bookwork for Hoffman Sheet Metal, the HVAC and sheet metal business her father and uncle started in Caldwell and Ted managed after her father's death.

Since both children had moved to Virginia after finishing college, once Ted retired, he and Linda moved to Waynesboro, Virginia, in 2008 to be near them. She always missed her friends and family back home in Idaho, though, and never failed to remind everyone how much better the weather is in Idaho. The birth of a beloved grandson in 2011 reconciled her a bit more to Virginia's humidity.

After moving to Virginia, Linda and Ted became members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charlottesville. Linda loved her church family and enjoyed playing handbells as part of Immanuel's Alleluia Ringers. She also loved to read mystery stories and never met a pie she didn't like. Her favorite times were those spent traveling with family and friends. She loved lighthouses, and the Oregon Coast was her favorite place to visit, with Yellowstone and the mountains of Idaho a close second. Most of her fondest childhood memories were of visiting her parents' old stomping grounds in Fairbury, Illinois, and spending time with her many cousins there. In later years she and her sisters took a trip to England to visit Megan in graduate school there, then Linda tagged along on a number of Megan's work trips, visiting London again, Manchester, Geneva, and Lisbon. In recent years the whole family regularly visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Linda loved this peaceful time spent simply relaxing with family, especially Ben.

Linda is survived by her husband Ted and daughter Megan of Waynesboro; son Matt, daughter-in-law, Cheryl, and beloved grandson Ben of Palmyra, Virginia; sisters and brothers-in-law Paula and Jim Johnson and Carla and Bill Oestreich of Boise, Idaho; sister-in-law Nancy Hoffmann of Caldwell, Idaho; nephew Mike (and Erika) Hoffmann of Los Angeles, California; and niece Cindy (and Aaron) Crabtree and their sons Will, Leo, Owen, and Ethan, of Phoenix, Arizona. She was preceded in death by her parents, and by her brother Jay in 1984.

Linda dearly loved her family and friends and was a woman of strong faith, though her faith was sometimes tested by debilitating anxiety. We are comforted now knowing that at last her Confirmation verse has been realized: "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer…Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

McDow Funeral Home is assisting the family.