Linda Joyce Mitchell

June 21, 1951 - December 21, 2019

Linda was a smart, charismatic, funny, quick witted, salty humored, lovable, kind and generous person with an infectious personality that drew people to her. Linda was born in Kansas City but moved to Minnesota at the age of 5 with her two sisters Cecelia and Neoka. Linda was raised with her sisters by her loving Uncle and Aunt, Vincent and Starr Shepherd. Linda grew up in south Minneapolis In her youth Linda started her working career at Minnesota’s first black newspaper, The Minneapolis Spokesman and Recorder. Linda went on to college and completed a Nursing degree at St. Mary’s University. Linda began her nursing career at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital where she found her purpose in her love of children and used her skill to help ill children for years. Children loved her and she loved them too. Nothing gave Linda more joy than making children happy and seeing them smile. After years of nursing she decided to serve her community by working at the Minneapolis Urban league. After serving her community in multiple facets she returned to the Spokesman and Recorder and worked her way to an editor position. After retiring Linda began to develop health issues, she had high blood pressure that eventually reduced her kidney function to zero. In 2001 she received a kidney transplant from her daughter and it appeared her health problems were a thing of the past, unfortunately, this was far from true. Though Linda had a new lease on life and began to enjoy life with more energy and vitality. Linda later developed multiple health conditions and in the Spring of 2019 she broke her thigh bone (femur) and was brought to a Transitional Care Unit to rehabilitate herself and learn to walk again on the injured leg. Three days before returning home from the rehab Linda suffered a stroke. After the stoke she seemed to be on the road to recovery, but began to decline in November. By December doctors began preparing her for her transition and this day. For her last activity before her sharp health decline, she helped put up a Christmas tree in her TCU room. Linda loved Christmas and it gave her great joy to have the tree and help as much as she could. It was the most happy we had seen her in a while and we were so happy to share the moment with her. Linda was a great lover of music and amassed an enormous record collection, some of those songs you heard during visitation were from her collection. At the end of her days family and friends visited her and this brought her great joy. We were able to spend time and let her know how loved she is, for that we are truly grateful. On Saturday December 21st she went peacefully and beautifully with no suffering and again we are truly grateful.