Yes, It’s Real
Here is Mama’s official obituary. Yes, it’s real.
Linda Louise Moyers Burchfield, age 74, of Knoxville, TN, went Home on January 19, 2023.
Linda was born in Pine Bluff, AR, a proud plumber’s daughter, and later graduated from the College of the Ozarks (now University of Arkansas) with a degree in Early Childhood Education. Determined to be a missionary, Linda attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after college, where they taught her how not to dance or smoke instead.
After learning formal ministry was not for her, she hightailed it out of Fort Worth, TX, with a husband in tow, along with some really great casserole recipes. She and her late spouse, Tommy Joe Burchfield, lived happily in Tennessee and went on to rear two of the world’s most sarcastic beauties.
Tommy Joe had the audacity to up and die one day, leaving Linda to finish raising their daughters alone, nothing to break her fall except faith and the obligation to survive. She changed careers and retired years later from Knox County Schools, known as “the magic lunchlady” (a self-bestowed nickname that we still don’t understand) at Karns High School as well as the head custodian at Byington-Solway Technology Center and Amherst Elementary.
Later, she moved to a different state and created a vibrant new life for herself, a happy third act as a Georgia Bulldog – much to the consternation of her Tennessee relatives. Working at the O-House dining hall, she became a well-loved mother figure to scores of college kids at the University of Georgia. Athletes, geeks, theobros - she encouraged them all as they ponied up their cash or cards. "There's ole Punkinhead!" she'd beam proudly when she saw an athlete she knew on TV. "He comes through my line all the time!"
After Linda’s second retirement, things changed because of a long-term serious illness. It eventually caused her death. Although her illness might have been the last chapter of her story, it will not define her life.
She is best remembered for the fact that she loved each of us for who we are. She wasn’t the judgmental type. She accepted people at face-value, not expecting them to be anyone but their own beautiful selves; only asking that people accept her in the same way.
And oh, how she loved Jesus.
Linda is survived by her daughters, Heather (Ben) Ream and Rebekah (Will Malone) Burchfield, and Lois, Conrad, Alex, Lynn, Joe, Connie, Garry Ross, Kristi, Debbie, Tolliver, Kendra, Wade, Pauline, Angela, Cindy, Stephen, Joseph, James, Alicia, Adam, Larry, Spencer, Michael, Sadonna, Russell, Stacey, Hannah, and Jeremy – enough brothers, sisters, in-laws, nieces, and nephews to star in their own reboot of Hee Haw.
Services will be held on Saturday, January 28 at 11:00am at Woodlawn Cemetery in Knoxville, TN. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you donate to a charitable organization that has deep meaning for you, in her memory.
The family also requests that you take a page out of the Linda Burchfield playbook and always remember to stick up for the little guy, look out for one another, and love without condition. She will be missed, but we will see her again.
(Go Dawgs!)
