Linda Louise (Holt) McCullum, 82, of Hutchinson, went home to her Lord and Savior, on December 11, 2024. She was born August 10, 1942, in Pittsburg, KS, to Farrell and Mildred (Ozbun) Holt.
The Holts made Great Bend their home for most of Linda’s school years and she graduated from Great Bend High School in 1960. Linda married James Meek right after graduating from high school and they had 3 daughters: Julie, Jenni, and Lisa. They were married 12 years when James died in a car wreck in Tulsa, OK. After living in Oklahoma for years, Linda and her girls moved to Hutchinson. She completed Salt City Business College after a year. She raised and supported her three girls and all three graduated from Hutchinson High school. Linda worked at Good Samaritan Nursing Home for 10 years as a payroll clerk, receptionist, and medical records, and then 12 years in medical records at Wesley Towers. By 1999, all three girls had married and started families of their own and Linda had six grandchildren.
In late 1998, Linda took Y2K training in St. Louis for the medical records software she was using at Wesley Towers. She called Richard McCullum, a 1960 Great Bend High School classmate who was living in St. Louis. They had met in Great Bend in the 1950’s and were in Sunday Schools and Youth Groups together. Rich and Linda became better acquainted in junior high and high school. They were good friends in high school, but never dated. Rich and Linda got together several times that week and he took her and a friend who was taking the same training out to eat and see the St. Louis sites. They had several deep conversations catching up with what was going on in each other’s lives.
In March 1999, Rich and Linda started communicating almost daily by email as friends. They also discovered Instant Messenger and started talking that way and on the phone. By June of that year, Rich and Linda started talking about marriage. They felt that God was bringing them together and they needed each other. On September 4 of that year, Rich proposed to Linda on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River call Lover’s Leap near Hannibal, MO. By that time, he had signed a contract with Missouri Baptist College for the 1999-2000 school year which had already started. There were now so many things to work thru and it seemed impossible.
On January 5, 2000, they were married at Kansas Christian Home, in Newton, where Rich’s parents were residing. Rich moved to Hutchinson in May 2000, and they joined Countryside Baptist Church that Fall. In 2002, Rich and Linda went on a Kodiak Alaska Mission with 29 other Countryside members. They became very active in Countryside and went back to Kodiak for another mission trip in 2004.
Linda retired from Wesley Towers in 2003 and became an active volunteer, an avid scrapbooker and a busy grandma. Linda and Rich made many trips to their timeshares in Branson and Galveston and one to Orange Beach, Alabama with their daughters and grandkids.
Over the past ten years, dementia had been stealing Linda’s mind. About 5 years ago she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Rich was her 24/7 caregiver, but had help from their daughters, hospice, hired caregivers, and church friends.
Linda is survived by: her husband Richard McCullum of Hutchinson; daughters Jenni (Buck) Buckmaster and Lisa (John) Dimmitt, all of Wichita; grandchildren, Timothy Broadfoot, Tiffany Broadfoot, Kenneth Broadfoot, Nathan (Hannah) Beam, Jamie Dimmitt (Ryan Carlson), Luke Dimmitt (Michaela Chronister); great-grandchildren, Mason Smith, Cameron Cook, Malachi Beam, and Emma Dimmitt.
She was preceded in death by her parents and a daughter, Julie Beam.
Funeral service will be 1:30 p.m. Monday, December 16, 2024, at Countryside Baptist Church, 819 W. 30th Ave., Hutchinson. Burial will follow in Buhler East Cemetery, Buhler. The service will be livestreamed and can be viewed on the church’s Facebook page.
Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1-8 p.m., with family present to receive friends from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Elliott Mortuary.
Memorials are suggested to Countryside Baptist Church or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, KS 67501.