OH NO, I hate to hear that! Has it been a long time since she's posted here? I know the name but had not thought that she was not posting but I don't see anything current posted by her, only posts from many years ago.

Thanks for letting us know! I had noticed her absence and put out good wishes for her well-being. Linda's idea of fun was often disagreeing with my every post, pro forma, not just having alternative views and information, but I so appreciated her depth of knowledge, scientific background, and some really good recipes.

My favorite Lindac recipe is her husband's grandmother's rhubarb pie. It's actually too sweet for me, because I really don't like sugary pies (she also shocked me once by putting three cups of sugar in a blueberry pie!), but the rhubarb pie is really really good, and she shared it generously.

It's just about rhubarb season, so I'll post it here:

Rhubarb pie with meringue from Linda C.

Mel Campbell was my (Linda's) father in law. Grandma Ann was born in 1870, was a farm wife and after her husband died ran a boarding house.

Ingredients

1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust...in a 9 inch pie pan

3 eggs, separated

3 cups of rhubarb cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1 1/2 c. sugar

4 T. flour

6 T. additional sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

• Mix flour and sugar and pour over rhubarb in a large bowl, mix well, separate the eggs and add the beaten yolks to the rhubarb and mix well.
• Place in pie shell and bake at 375 for 1 hour until center is bubbly and crust is brown.
• Cool slightly.
• Beat whites, salt, and cream of tartar until soft peaks form, add the 6 T. of sugar in batches and continue beating until stiff peaks form when you raise the beater.
• Add the vanilla.
• Place meringue on pie and bake 5 or 6 minutes at 425 until lightly browned.

This is Grandma Ann Campbell’s recipe….Mel Campbell’s mother.

This picture is with the recipe. I think it's my first pie made with it:

I am so very sorry to hear this. I enjoyed Linda's posts and her knowledge of antiques over on the Antiques and Collector's Forum was also comprehensive. We have indeed lost a unique and valuable person.

Sad to learn. She also frequented the antiques forum and I’d noticed that she hadn’t been posting there recently.

Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear this. I had been thinking about her just recently while reminiscing about the old days. She swatted me a few times but overall I managed to stay on her good side! Love her or otherwise, a wealth of knowledge. She was someone I hoped to meet sometime, back when forum get-togethers were more common.

How about a blue cheese cookalong in her honor? Maytag, that is!

Edit - Or, funeral food? 🙂

I still use her Maytag salad dressing recipe. She was also very knowledgeable about antiques. I thought she was wonderful. I miss her.

Thank you, Annie. I, too, admired her generosity and knowledge. She must have been something to know in real life. I learned a lot from her, both here and on the antiques forum.

I don't post here much, but I did enjoy her post. Her yeast roll recipe is my go-to, and I titled it "Linda C's yeast rolls". I'm so sorry to hear of her passing.

She and I crossed swords more than once, but I still make her Cranberry Jezebel every Thanksgiving and "bunny buns" at Easter. We disagreed, pointlessly, on whether paraffin wax or a ring and lid was better for jelly, and to make her point she sent me some of her homemade crabapple jelly, sealed with paraffin. I shared it with my Mother, who was impressed that someone was still making crabapple jelly, let alone being willing to box it up and send it to Michigan. It was delicious, by the way.

She was not afraid to post a picture of herself wearing a wine glass marker as a nose ring and she named her poodles after coffee drinks. She was a cancer survivor. She had an opinion and everyone was entitled to it, LOL, and she made me smile and shake my head sometimes.

Thanks for posting that recipe, Plllog, it'll be rhubarb season here in a couple of months, and I'll have to make that in her memory. I love rhubarb pie, although it does require inordinate amounts of sugar to make the stuff edible.

Annie

I too am very sorry to hear this. I always followed her posts with great interest and affection and also a little trepidation lest I would catch her eye and she’d tell me off. Truely one of the worlds great characters.

I had recently made note to myself that I had not seen any new Linda C. posts on the Antiques forum. So sorry to hear of her passing; he always willingly shared her extensive knowledge of antiques.

I'm sorry to hear of her passing. She didn't suffer from an insecurity complex for sure, but seemed to have a wealth of common sense and knowledge to share.

I've never seen meringue on a rhubarb pie but will certainly try hers. I was happy to see she didn't muss it up with something like strawberries, my least fav rhubarb recipe. I would have loved to have had her next door! So many of our spirited contributors gone these last few years - it's becoming difficult. Miss them all.

LindaC had confidence and attitude, and the chops to back it up. In spades.

I always admired her knowledge of antiques.

I am one of the ones who couldn't post for a long time. Remember how her and an Italian guy named Lou (I think) used to go at it? People used to call him Linda's boyfriend lol I had been wondering what happened to her as well. Thanks for posting, Annie.

Cookebook, when I first joined CF, I got a great many private messages trying to draft me to one side of that or the other, and other messages encouraging me to participate and ignore them rather than running away. I did stay away for months at a time, but the forum was too good to quit entirely. I never understood what it was all about and didn't want to, but since you mentioned it I wonder if her picking on me so much was her trying to make me her new foil. I called her out on it when it was too annoying and she'd back off for a time, but I truly valued Linda and her contributions, and have missed her since she's been gone.

Linda was spunky, that's for sure. We mostly got along but we had health stuff in common, so we chatted about that and I didn't ruffle her feathers. I'm sure I was corrected a time or two though.

I saw that she posted her word game results on Facebook just 5 or 6 days before she passed. She gone in to ER in early March for edema. Not sure what happened in between

She has the best covid bread baking stories. She was a bread baking\gifting machine, lol. Now I need to find a LindaC recipe to make in her honor.

So sad to hear this - I always enjoyed reading her posts, but then she and I never got into any arguments or disagreements. However, I have never made any of the recipes that she has posted.

She contributed recipes to every chapter of the Moe's Diner Cookbook that we compiled (with lots of other Cooking Forum members) back in November, 2002.

She seemed interested in my flatbread recipe (No one else did) and asked me to send her some rice flour because she said she could not get any where she lived. I'm sure that has changed by now.

I will definitely miss her, and I had been thinking of her recently because I had not seen any posts from her, and I knew she was getting up in years. She reminded me of my grandmother, who also used to bake bread for everyone in her neighborhood.

Thanks for letting us know about this. I went to facebook to get more info and saw some of her recent posts. I very seldom visit facebook these days.

Incidentally, another Linda Campbell passed away this month in Indiana at 88, which seems very much of a coincidence. She did have a different middle name, however.

I am so sorry to hear of her passing, thank you for letting us know! RIP LindaC. While we didn't bump heads, that gal was spunky and I admired that! I don't get over here very much to post, mostly I lurk and read, and today I did look up a few recipes that I got from here: Texas sheet cake, lasagna sauce, homemade brownies, Balsamic Vinaigrette as well as raspberry vinaigrette, carrot cake, chicken casserole (i.e. funeral lunch chicken casserole) and chicken coronation salad. Of course, I also had to try Maytag Bleu Cheese too, since there was no other!

Smiles,

Sooz

^^^Haha I saw that obit and was thinking that is NOT our LindaC!!!

Thank you for telling us about her death. I don't remember ever crossing her, but I was around Spike's era long ago, so I guess I probably did too. I know I have copied and made any number recipes with her name on it. God bless her and keep her safe.

I'm sorry to hear that! I had noticed her absence for some time, so I was wondering.

She always seemed to be the FASTEST person to answer my cooking questions.

She also correctly identified my vintage dining room set on the antiques forum. Until I posted the pictures after buying it in 2010 or so: I had no idea that she was on that forum as well.

Bummer! I noticed her absence since I have been checking back in regularly.

She was always the quickest to answer when you had a cooking emergency. She also was quite opinionated. LOL Just thinking back remembering her and Lou going at it makes me laugh now.

Oh that's very sad. I loved her as she had real backbone and said what she thought, even though that isn't always appreciated. I did. Rest in peace, lovely lady.

Thanks for crawling out of the woodwork to share that wonderful tribute, Peppi! Sounds like she was, in real life, pretty much the character she was here.

Peppi, Elery saw it on Facebook first, then AnnT reached out to him to make sure I knew, since I don't participate in social media.

I smiled at that tribute, it sounds just like LindaC that I knew here, LOL.

Annie

I am sad to hear this news. I once sent Linda a dozen honeybell oranges for marmalade making - she sent me some jams with parrafin toppings and an antique silver spoon.

She was feisty but very knowledgeable when it came to cooking.

I still make her "Julie's Carrot Cake" every year for Easter.

Fly high, Linda!

Andi

Over the years, I have had my share of lively conversations with LindaC. I respect her,. From her, I have learned a lot about cooking and about life, above all, I have learn a few things about myself.

Thank you LindaC, RIP.

dcarch

She certainly taught me a lot about standing behind what you put online. Tough lessons. She was right. She sure didn't take bull, did she?

I'm one of the people that caused the whole Lou/Linda thing. I wasn't even trying. There's a whole big difference between dry and fresh garlic. It was such a simple question, and I didn't even suggest using either one. They sure had their opinions

I did not particularly like Lou - he insulted me more than once, but Linda was nothing but nice to me at all times. I'm sure I took Linda's side on the garlic issue.

I was ok with either side of the garlic. Didn't have an opinion ;)

Justt saw this announcement. I am sorry to hear this. She was definitely a piece of work. I remember seeing a picture of her when she was Miss Cornzapoppin!

Hi Everyone:

This is Stew Campbell, LindaC's son. Thank you all so much for the wonderful and entertaining comments. She passed on Monday, 3/17 at the age of 88.

In terms of what happened to her? Well a life well lived caught up to her. She had been a smoker for about 45 years (quit at age 63 when she developed breast cancer), and was diagnosed with advanced COPD a few years ago. She was able to treat that fairly well with home oxygen and meds, but it reduced her mobility and with reduced mobility comes atrophy and with that came congestive heart failure. Ultimately what took her was that combined with kidney failure as her heart wasn't able to move the blood through anymore. She died peacefully at 3:30 Monday morning with my sister and I holding her hands and two of her grandkids there too.

You'll be happy to know she was still 100% Linda all the way to about 12 hours before her passing. Wit just as sharp. We used to joke that she was sharp as a tack and could strike as hard as a snake. One of her doctors learned that on Saturday when he came in to ask her how she was doing and her answer was "I'm dying. How the f*** do you think I'm doing?" My black lab has never put her tail between her legs like that doctor did! LOL

Funeral services are this coming Saturday 3/29 at the First Presbyterian Church in Newton IA, 10:00 AM for visitation, 11:00 AM for the service, and of course a funeral luncheon afterwards. We have been assured the luncheon will be to "Linda specifications". The funeral will be videoed and posted to YouTube later. I'll come back here and share the link to it.

Memorials for Linda reflect her interests in music, charity and food. To that end, she was immensely proud of the charity that I run, the Gifted Guitars Foundation, which provides free guitars to kids in the Chicago area who can’t afford to purchase one of her own. Donations to Gifted Guitars can be made through GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/7741e17f. With her love of food, cooking and providing to others, she also supported food banks. Donations can be made to the Food Bank of Iowa at https://foodbankiowa.org.

Again thank you all for being in her global universe of friends.

So sorry to see this Annie. She was sparky, zesty, opinionated in a good way. Passionate about her community, friends, and family. Loved spoiling them. I did notice she had not posted in some time.

Her grandson gave her this recipe to make for him...cute.

I need to make it again....Link, bretzel rolls

She is not kidding about using a tall pot....

There is also a post on Antiques and Collectables which is where I met her. I am so sorry to hear this news. She was so knowledgeable and I found her to be, to me, always very kind. I loved her strong opinions, her direct approach to everything, and her willingness to offer advice. She had a wonderful sense of humor and started a fun story about a silver service I inherited that everyone added to, so it went on and on. Such fun. I think she was delightful. She was right about just about everything, including Maytag Blue cheese.