WHISPERING PINES, N.C. – Linda Jane (McColl) Gouws passed away on March 27, 2023 after experiencing declining health for several years.

She was born on Oct. 2, 1942, the third of four children of John Franklin McColl and Dorothy Elizabeth Claflin McColl. After growing up and attending schools in Delmar, N.Y. and graduating from the University of Vermont in 1964 with a degree in French, she moved to New York City, N.Y. to join Pan American Airways as a flight attendant. Over about five years and many flights to all corners of the world, she visited numerous countries, always relishing opportunities to sample new cultural experiences.

Not long after arriving in New York, she met Johann Gouws, a South African-born, Yale graduate, investment analyst working on Wall Street. It did not take long for them to realize that they belonged together. They were married on Aug. 6, 1966, launching a marriage that lasted for more than 56 years until Linda passed away. They had two children: Susannah Elizabeth, born in 1969 on Linda’s 27th birthday, and John Franklin, born in 1972. Throughout her life, they were focal points for her love and sources of her joy and became significant contributors to caring for Linda as her health declined.

The first few years of marriage were spent in the New York/New Jersey area, followed by about a decade in Wilton, Conn. and 37 years in Falmouth. In 2019, she and Johann moved to North Carolina and built a home in Whispering Pines, which Linda was able to enjoy for a while before moving to a care facility in December 2020.

Throughout Linda’s life, family — both immediate and extended — was her greatest priority. With sisters Anne and Mary, for many years she made quilts to welcome each new arrival in the family at large. Her interests were many. She loved music, playing the piano, taking lessons to learn to play the organ, accompanying concerts and theater performances in the school system and singing in her church choir. She developed a passion for tennis, which she played well into her 70s. She was a Master Gardener, each year caught up anew in the rituals and joy of growing things and contributing mountains of squash to the Community Thanksgiving dinner. As soon as the soil dried up enough, she would be on her John Deere tractor, tilling up the garden. The only enemies she had were the critters trying to invade the garden.

She seized every opportunity to serve. Her many contributions to the community as a volunteer were recognized numerous times over the years, most notably by being named Falmouth Citizen of the Year in 2010. She was involved at every opportunity with school and church activities and was a stalwart, fully engaged with the Falmouth Congregational Church. In addition to her commitment to her children’s school activities and sports, she lent her musical talents to the elementary school choir and was “one of the kids” in the High School Musical Pit Band for many years after her children graduated.

She loved to travel: as a flight attendant; on a number of bicycle tours in Europe and the U.S.; on a grand cross-country trip with South African relatives in 1979; and as First Mate on a series of ever-larger boats cruising the coast of Maine and even venturing to the Bahamas and Nova Scotia.

Linda was gentle, caring, generous, kind and always able to see the best in others. She was loved by all and loved them right back.

A memorial service will be Sunday June 25 at 2 p.m. at the Falmouth Congregational Church. Interment in the Blanchard Cemetery on Winn Road in Falmouth will be private.

Online condolences may be left at: http://www.bolesfuneralhome.com

Services are entrusted to Boles Funeral Home of Southern Pines, N.C.

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