In addition to Nancy Kelly who guest blogged yesterday about the passing of Linda Walter, I also invited Liz Cory to share her thoughts. Liz is a hobbyist from our earliest days whose friendship with Linda stretched back to the 1960s.
Here is what Liz remembers about Linda.
Every loss of a fellow model horse collector is hard to fathom, but the loss of Linda Walter is one that has struck me harder than most. Perhaps it is because her Model Horse Shower’s Journal, typed over and over again on a manual typewriter, using carbon paper (to meet the demands of 50+ subscribers), each page lovingly hand illustrated by Linda herself, was the glue that held us early hobbyists together.
It was the late 1960’s, and I remember coming home from school to find that thick, folded packet sitting on the front hall table. Excitedly, I would drop my books, grab this prize, run to my room, and proceed to read every word on its 60+ pages, over and over again.
Today, news is instant, and the US Mail is almost a relic. But, in those days, we waited days for letters, newsletters like Linda’s were lifelines of information, and, after we had consumed every single word, we all wrote letters late into the night, following up on ads or news with model friends nationwide, all of whom we met through the Model Horse Shower’s Journal.
The Journal featured photo show listings (that’s all we had), sales lists, sire/dam lists, news about new Breyer and Hagen-Renaker models, and all sorts of wonderful tidbits. Plus, the drawings! Linda was a very talented artist, and her artwork made each issue a treasure to save. The MHSJ, as we affectionately called it, was the catalyst for numerous letters and phone calls to fellow hobbyists, “Did you get your MHSJ yet? Did you see that Hagen-Renaker Sherif for sale?”
Of course, it was bliss ten times over when Linda would choose a member of your stable for the MHSJ cover. In the early 1970’s, I turned a remaking (we now call them “customs”) mistake into a bloated bright green and yellow appaloosa that I was inspired to name The Blimp. The horse soon became a novelty in the hobby, and Linda soon featured him on the cover, in a drawing that showed my Blimpie drifting up into space, like a drifting balloon. I was so much more excited about The Blimp’s cover status than I was about his other claim to fame, which was a line in the real horse magazine, Classic, which ran a mid-70’s story about the model horse hobby.
What was Linda like as a friend? I met her in person at one of the first Model Horse Congress shows in the early 1970’s. It was wonderful to meet so many of my pen pals in person. In many ways she was an enigma, hesitant to talk about herself, quiet, humble. She never flaunted her status in the hobby, or her magnificent collection of Hagen-Renakers. She never gossiped, spoke ill of anyone that I knew of, never complained, even though I knew that constant typing took its toll. She was a servant leader, someone who did what she did out of pure love for the hobby, and quietly shared her values through example. She was patient with new hobbyists – never tiring of answering questions, encouraging. She was inspiring through her work, in fact, inspiring me – through her example -- to take up the Editor’s reins of Just About Horses several years later.
Linda never took a salary, paid for that newsletter with her own sweat and a subscription base, and was always in good humor. In many ways she clung to the past. She lived quietly in the same house in Alabama most of her life. She always had that long mane of dark hair. She would come to BreyerFest every year on the Greyhound bus, all the way to Lexington, spending hours and hours with her small bag and a few models, looking forward to greeting friends. I loved seeing her, talking to her, hearing her self-deprecating description of herself as “the old Fossil.” No, Linda, I wouldn’t describe you that way. To me, you were a treasured friend.
We would catch up throughout the week, snippets here and there before something (or someone) else called us from the conversation. Before we went home again, I would ask her to please be careful, and I told her how much I looked forward to seeing her again. Her response was the same. “Lord willing, I’ll be back.” I wish I had told her how much I appreciated her bringing magic to this (former) little girl, opening my eyes to a hobby I continue to enjoy today.
She’s now with her contemporaries, people like Marney Walerius, Simone (Simmie) Smiljanic, Arlene Bentley, Susan Renaker Nikas, Janet Walter, Marlene Kosanke, Liz Bouras (who was quite a bit younger), and others. Thank you, Linda, for being a leader. Thank you for your vision, southern grace and manners. Thank you for your inspiration and your friendship. Most of all, thank you for being you.
Thanks, Liz, for sharing your memories about Linda.
Tomorrow I will share my own memories about Linda, so stay 'tooned!
