Linda Lyche Death, Obituary – On Sunday, November 20, 2022, Linda Lyche, age 72, from Onalaska, Alaska, died away peacefully at her home, surrounded by her devoted family. On July 30, 1950, Linda Renee O’Brien Lyche was born in the city of Fargo, North Dakota. After some time, she moved with her family to Minot, North Dakota, where she completed her secondary education in 1968. After she graduated from high school, Linda enrolled in Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, while her parents relocated to Jamestown. When she was a student at Concordia, her roommate introduced her to the man who would eventually become her husband. At the time, he was enrolled at Moorhead State College.
The remaining two years of her undergraduate education were spent at the University of North Dakota, from which she graduated in December 1971 with degrees in Psychology and Spanish as well as minors in Mathematics and Secondary Education. During her time there, she earned a double major in these two subjects. During her time in college, she had the opportunity to participate in an exchange program in Valencia, Spain. This experience sparked a lifelong interest in seeing new places. On May 12, 1972, she tied the knot with the man she had loved her entire life, John. The young couple anticipated that John’s training at a local bank would be a brief assignment when they relocated to the Coulee Region in July of 1974.
They believed that the assignment would be transitory. The first employment that Linda had in the area was at La Crescent High School, and it was there that she taught mathematics. When Linda and John finally decided to conceive their family, despite Linda’s previous reservations about becoming a parent, she threw herself wholeheartedly into the role of motherhood. Linda provided her young children Eric (1978), Adam (1980), and Jill (1982) with love, happiness, education, and direction while she cared for them at home as a stay-at-home parent. She would often talk about how becoming a mother brought her the utmost happiness in her life and how much she enjoyed it.
Linda made the decision to go back to school at the same time as her youngest kid began kindergarten. She earned a Master of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, as well as a specialist designation as a school psychologist, later on. After receiving her diploma, she took a position at Onalaska High School as the coordinator of the Gifted and Talented Program. After some time had passed, she would leave this position in order to pursue a career as a school psychologist in the Sparta School District. After working in the field for a while, she relocated her job to be closer to her house and accepted a position of equal responsibility with the West Salem School District.
She continued to be very interested in her children’s activities despite everything that was going on. She was a leader in many organizations, including the Onalaska Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), youth hockey, the Show Choir Parent Support group, and the Onalaska United Methodist Church. She served as a chaperone for a number of Mission Trips sponsored by the church. Additionally, Linda and her family were hosts to five different students participating in a long-term exchange program.