Linda Beth Crutchfield's Obituary
Linda Beth Donoho Hodges Crutchfield
It is with heavy hearts we must announce the passing of our beloved mother Linda Beth Donoho Hodges Crutchfield On December 17, 2021.
She was born April 25, 1943 in Red Boiling Springs Tennessee to Christine and Thomas Edison Donoho of Macon County Tennessee during World War II, she was a war baby.
Her parents were members of the greatest generation, he served as a solder in Europe while she did all she could to support the cause with two small children back home.
After the war they carried on with their life tbgether and started the family business, a rural general store near Lafayette Tennessee.
In the early days he would haul coal all night as a truck driver and she would run the store during the day, negotiating with suppliers, serving the customers, and pumping gasoline. Christine was a woman ahead of her time and not afraid to stand up for herself and her family to anyone. She was an entrepreneur. Later they began running a rolling store to serve the greater community in the hard scrabble hills of central Tennessee and Kentucky. It is said that the Donoho rolling store (a modified school bus) was the last of its kind in the United States.
The store was the center of the universe as Linda and Her older sister Peggy Donoho Marsh were growing up. When they weren't in school, they worked in the store, stocking the shelves, slicing up deli meat, serving up the orders of salt fish and crackers during the winter, keeping wood in the stove in the center of the store, and pumping gasoline. When she was in school, she worked hard and was a varsity cheerleader.
She experienced many significant moments in history during her early life, the Korean war, television, and commercial air travel. Later, as a young adult, she would witness the Cuban Missile crisis, the Kennedy tragedies' the space race, Martin Luther King ilnd the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam war.
In the early 60's she married Leroy Hodges and they had a son, Ellis Christian Hodges. That marriage soon ended, and she was re-married to Larry Wayne Crutchfield in the early 70's. They had two sons, Chad Wayne Crutchfield, and Craig Thomas Crutchfield. By 1990 she was living independently, once again making her own rules and doing things her way. Yes, Chris, Chad, and Craig, when she got upset with one of them, she would call him all three names till she got to the right one!
She took what she learned during her life in the store and later used it as inspiration to work hard for her family, to always provide what her children needed, to always have it better than she did. She wanted her boys to be healthy, well-educated and know the love of God. She was her mother's daughter.
As her young sons were growing up, she was a stay-at-home mom, making sure we got to swimming lessons, got plenty of outside time, and attended Vacation Bible School during the weekdays during the summer. Much differently than today. And we got there for a while in a muscle car! More than once, did she leave her mark on the street in front of our house to go do something, or take us somewhere that we were late for. There were also trips out of Nashville down to the Tennessee river with the Tatum's to the Patton family camp for fun in the forest, motorcycle riding, and watersports.
In 1978 the family moved to Richardson Texas, here she began carting the younger boys around to soccer games and swim tournaments. Group adventures with other families during that time would find us on the shores of various lakes around north Texas camping and skiing, she skied well past her 30's. Other adventures had us in a few dance halls around Texas like the SPJST hall near Georgetown, with your ticket stub stapled to your shirt collar if you were almost, but not quite, over the age to have a beer. Other times we were at smaller, less sophisticated roadhouses, or an anniversary party where the music would play, and the singing and dancing would go on for hours.
And then after we were grown, she would even go to places to hear Chad play music where she was two, to three times older than everyone else in the building. All just because she wanted to be there to cheer louder than anyone else, she was a cheerleader forever.
She would show her love by always making sure you were taken care of. She loved to write letters, and then when texting came along, she was off to the races, she would write you long, long, texts like she was composing a letter. And they would always end with lots of hugs and kisses, XXXXXXX, 000000.
Some of her favorite things were Elvis, SEC Football, (esp. that Orange team from Tennessee), and her sororities. She loved her music, in the 70's you could always count on a BEE GEES 8-track tape blaring in the car. Later she turned her passion to country music, she really enjoyed Gary Stewart and other Wrangler wearing cowboys. But she really liked this new kid Garth Brooks, she was a pioneering member of his official fan club. She loved to travel, she went to countless places from New York City to San Francisco, to the far corners of the nation, always meeting new friends she didn't know she had.
She worked in many fields during her life. From the roofing industry,to the magazine industry, to the Dallas Police Department.
She had the very first dry erase boards, bathroom mirrors and lipstick! She would leave herself notes, sometimes covering more of the mirror than not. She would leave little reminders on our bathroom mirror too just to be helpful.
She would say her greatest accomplishments were her boys, and her surviving their adolescence! That, and her friendships, starting way back with Phillis Anne Cupit, her sister-in-law, Cathey Hubenthal, her SO-year running buddy and dear friend. The Tennessee girls, Brenda Decker, Debora Patton, Pat Tatum, and many, many more friendships lasting just as long.
She is survived by:
Her sons Ellis Christian Hodges, Chad Wayne Crutchfield, and Craig Thomas Crutchfield
Her daughters-in-law Rollinda Styner Hodges, Mary Lou Crutchfield, and Allison Crutchfield
Her grandchildren, Richard Rivera, Kailye Christian Hodges Buss and her husband Ryan Buss, Sophia Barbra Hodges Bradshaw and her husband Tristen Bradshaw, Cooper Thomas Crutchfield, Campbell Ella Crutchfield, Casey Julian Crutchfield, and Greer Fisher Crutchfield.
And great-grandchildren, Calvin Rivera, Hunter Biondo, Haden Baugus, Aspen Buss, and Magnolia Bradshaw
Summery:
Her life was much bigger than these few words can describe, and her character was so much bigger than then that little body of hers, she was a cheerleader!
Though she had her ways about her and shared her thoughts perhaps more than she should. You always knew where the two of you stood, then she would shower you with hugs and kisses.
In leu of flowers please donate to the veteran's assistance organization of your choice to honor her mother and father, the rest of the Greatest Generation, and all the hero's that have served our country.
Funeral arrangements for Linda Beth Crutchfield have been faithfully entrusted to Restland Funeral Home and Cemetery, which is located at 13005 Greenville Ave., at the intersection of Restland Road, Dallas, Texas 75243, and can be reached at (972) 238-7111.
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