Linda Gayle Singer (January 17, 1946 to April 19, 2019)
Linda Gayle Singer (“Singer”) died peacefully in her home in Atlanta on April 19, 2019 after a 10-year battle with ovarian cancer. She fought hard to live well and thoroughly enjoyed life despite being told on numerous occasions that she had only months to live. She had a great sense of humor, was generous to everyone she met, had a mind of her own, and was in charge throughout her journey, even to the point of writing her own obituary.
Singer was born in Atlanta in 1946 to James and Rose Singer and was the youngest of 5 children. She was preceded in death by her parents and by the love of her life, her wife Jessie DuVall. She is survived by her siblings Bob (Jackie) Cochran, Harry (Evelyn) Singer, Carole Spurlock, Cecil (Myra) Singer, and many beloved nieces and nephews. She leaves behind her constant providers of care and comfort, her cats Brubeck and Clooney. She also leaves behind her caring and supportive brother-in-law, Harry Plapinger, as well as her amazing Atlanta support team, “Team Singer,” including Mary Arthur (her everyday best friend), Nita French, Patti Ann Allen, Patti Duffett, Joy Harris, Jill Cohen, Pat Coggins, and Ginna McFarling. She would also like to acknowledge her many other friends and family members from all over the country who supported and loved her throughout her journey, and made it more bearable. She would have named them all but, if she did, the price of this obituary would mean she had nothing left to leave her beneficiaries!
Singer firmly believed in “living large” every day. She was 6’ 2, a natural at basketball, and she was a self-proclaimed world-class athlete. She attended Georgia College and State University where she earned a BA in education and Georgia State University where she earned a Master’s degree in exercise physiology. Subsequently, she taught PE for 20 years and was named teacher of the year for the City of Atlanta in 1991. She and Jessie also spent 10 wonderful years in Olympia, WA where she continued her teaching career and made many more life-long friends.
Singer was a serial entrepreneur and found many unique ways to make money while having fun: selling peanuts at Lake Lanier, running a vegetable stand, and hanging wallpaper for which she built her own scaffolding. She was a master chef, loved to share good food with her friends, and made wooden toys and beautiful painted floor cloths. In all these areas, she displayed great creativity, but her greatest gift of all was story telling. People would hang on every word, laugh uproariously, and always ask for more. She loved doing things her way, and even threw her own Celebration of Life party prior to her death with the theme “Go Big, Then Go Home” where many friends and family from all over the U.S. ate Southern food, danced, shared Singer stories, and expressed their love and appreciation of her.
Singer requested that people honor her memory by hugging a loved one and keeping her stories alive.
