Linda K B NEEDHAM

September 30, 1941 - August 26, 2019

Linda K. B. Needham, age 77, died on Monday, August 26, 2019, in Hot Springs, after a battle with cancer.

She was born on September 30, 1941, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Grover and Agnes Bush.

Linda graduated from Will Rogers High School in Tulsa and married Dwain Needham in 1962, after he graduated from law school. They immediately moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Later on, they lived in Arkadelphia, where they built and owned the Sonic Drive in. After going to work for Reynolds Metals, they moved to Massena, New York, back to Arkadelphia, to Lake Charles, Louisiana and finally to Hot Springs.

Linda worked for Tulsa University in the registration office during her junior and senior years in high school. After settling in Arkadelphia, she worked in her husband’s law office and then was the probation officer for Clark County for a number of years. Upon their move to Lake Charles, she worked for an insurance company and then worked as Deputy Clerk for the Federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. After moving to Hot Springs, she worked for over 20 years for St. Joseph Hospital, Mercy Hospital and finally for CHI St. Vincent, Hot Springs.

Linda loved to travel, traveling to several countries and all over the United States with various members of her family. Her other interests included reading and needle pointing as well as being and doing things with family. She was a charter member of Beta Sigma Phi chapter in Arkadelphia and was a Life Member, held the “Torchbearer Degree” Order of the Rose and the Silver Circle; was a member and officer in the Jaycetts in Arkadelphia. She attended the Leadership Hot Springs in 2001, and was on the Board of Directors for the Ouachita Children’s Center in Hot Springs for 14 years. Her most involved interest was needle pointing. She was a charter member of the guild in Arkadelphia. She stitched as a team member on a table runner, depicting the various crops of Arkansas, which is displayed in the Old State House in Little Rock. This was presented to the State of Arkansas during a ceremony at the capital at which time the piece was presented to Hillary Clinton, wife of then Governor Bill Clinton. Her second accomplishment was to be on a team that stitched a tapestry depicting the Seal of the Department of Interior. The stitched piece now hangs in the Office of the Department Interior in Washington, DC.

She was a member of the Genesis Sunday School Class at First United Methodist Church, Hot Springs.

Linda was preceded in death by her husband, Virgil Dwain Needham; her parents, Grover and Agnes Bush; and her in-laws, Virgil and Janie Dee Needham.

She is survived by her three children, son, David and wife, Donna Needham of Centerton, and their daughters, Emily Needham, Melanie Needham Manning and her husband Tyler, Madilyn Needham and Harlee Needham; daughter, Gwen Saylor of Hot Springs and her children, Heather Saylor and Allen Dwain (Rocky) Saylor; and son, Scot and wife Celeste of Covington, Louisiana and their daughters, Zoe Needham and Savanah Needham. She has one sister, Beth LaBuz and her husband Larry of Temple, Texas.

Services will be held at 10:00 AM, Thursday, September 5, 2019, at the Davis-Smith Funeral Home Chapel, Hot Springs with Rev. Teresa Holt officiating.

Interment in Memorial Gardens Cemetery

Davis-Smith Funeral Home-Hot Springs

Contributed on 3/15/22 by debbraszymanski
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Record #: 1425325

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