Linda Ruth (Story) Woods

May 17, 1946 – April 8, 2025

Linda Woods was born to LaVern (Woodfin) and Leonard Story on May 17, 1946 in Oklahoma City. Mom left a broken heart and a series of respiratory illnesses behind to join her love and partner Bob on April 8, 2025 – a year and a week after he passed. The angels from Mercy Kingfisher and SunCrest Hospice eased her journey.

Linda was a proud 1964 graduate of Putnam City High School. She was a proud Pirate to the end and a staunch supporter of "The Original" – except in later years, when her kids (and "adopted kids", who spent every Friday and Saturday night at the house for a decade) took the field for the Panthers of Putnam City North.

After graduating from PC, she worked retail jobs to save up for the coolest car ever – a powder-blue 1965 Mustang with a three-speed V6 engine – panicking her father in the process. She paid it off while cruising with her high school friends to Oklahoma City's popular drive-ins, like Hollie's and the Rancher's Daughter, creating lifelong memories and friendships along the way.

Linda took a job in the insurance business and made her own way like many young Oklahoma women in the '60s. In the spring of 1966, she went on a blind date with a young Marine named Bob, recently returned from Vietnam. That trip to the bowling alley, arranged by her friends and Bob's cousins, led to marriage in August 1967 and a love and partnership that lasted until Dad's passing last March. That 58-year-long journey included freezing in line in a sleet storm at the Fairgrounds for Blazers hockey tickets; fishing trips to "The Farm" and parties at the VFW with her adopted "uncles-in-law"; and countless baseball/soccer/gymnastics/dance/football games supporting their two children and eight grandchildren. Along the way, she was Mom and "Granna" to countless kids outside her own family: Developing everyone's prom and Christmas Dance pictures in her part-time lab tech job at Fox Photo on Northwest Expressway, and looking out for the kids in the cafeteria at Ralph Downs Elementary. She was a committed advocate for the least among us – the young, the old, the sick, the poor, and the persecuted – and she worked and fought for the things she believed in until she could toil no more. Her enduring hope – and challenge to us – was that others would take up fight.

Preceded in death by her parents; sister Delilah Price; brother Jimmy Story; and her beloved Bob, Linda is survived by her son, LCDR Rob Woods and his wife Lisa of Lithia, FL; his daughter, Amy Richards and her husband Jeff of Muncie, IN; her sister, Betty Bickel of Oklahoma City; and grandchildren, Gabe and Noelle Woods and George Ethan, Andrew, Allison, Adam, Nate, and Aaron Richards.

Viewing will be from 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 25 at Vondel Smith Mortuary North, 13125 N. MacArthur Blvd, with services at the funeral home Saturday, April 26, at 10 a.m. Interment follows at Yukon Cemetery, with a reception from 12-4 p.m. at the Black Barn, 6611 NW 36th St in Bethany.

Consider honoring Mom's memory by donating to the veterans' charity of choice, or supporting Mom and Granny Story's beloved monarch butterflies and birds through the Garden for Wildlife program.