Lynda Carolyn Mabe Keck, BHS 1958

Lynda Carolyn Mabe Keck, BHS 1958

February 5th, 1940 - June 29th, 2011, From: Alton, MO

Funeral: 2:00pm SaturdayJuly 2, 2011Oak Hill ChurchAlton, MO.
Lynda Carolyn Mabe, beloved mother, wife and friend, was born in High Point, North Carolina, on Feb. 5, 1940, to James Mabe and Irene Norman Mabe. Her ancestors had lived in the Piedmont of North Carolina since it was a British colony and she was deeply proud of her Southern ancestry.

Lynda grew up in High Point, a furniture manufacturing center, and was baptized at Green Street Baptist Church. Some of her relatives still attend services there and one of her sons was later baptized in the same church. Lynda learned the value of hard work at an early age. She worked in the tobacco fields during summer vacations and watching her grandfather run his car parts business in Mount Airy.

Lynda moved with her family to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, for a year, then to Burbank, California, when she was 13. She attended Burbank High School and spent summer weekends with school friends in the San Bernardino Mountains town of Big Bear. It was on one of those trips with a friend’s family that Lynda met a young Marine on leave riding horseback named John Keck. They were married on Feb. 9, 1957.

Rarely were they apart over their 52-year marriage, enduring tragedies and celebrating triumphs together. After the loss of their young son, Johnny, they wrapped their lives around raising their next two boys, David and Eric, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. Never setting aside her work ethic, Lynda involved herself in the PTA at her boys’ elementary school.

She became a top bowler, worked part time at a bakery, studied to be a nurse, and showed champion Old English Sheepdogs. She helped to organize the Old English Sheepdog Club of Southern California. She learned to love camping and hiking, spending time with John and the boys in the Sierra Nevada. She loved to bake and never flinched at heading to the kitchen to cook up something new. Lynda had a passion for life, her family and for everyone around her. Nothing intimidated her.

After raising her boys, Lynda and John moved to Acton, California in the mid-1980s. She worked at banks and in the advertising department of a department store before retiring. John and Lynda climbed into a motor home and traveled the country for several years before settling down in the Many Springs area outside of Alton, where her late father had purchased property.

Again Lynda relied on her work ethic. She bought the Sweetheart Bakery in Alton and ran it successfully with John and Eric until 2009, when illness took her from it. Despite undergoing major surgery in January 2010, she fought on for 18 months, until she quietly slipped away to be with John in Heaven on the morning of June 29.

Lynda loved Alton and the people here. She couldn’t wait to chat with everyone who came into the bakery every morning and with those at Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church. She enjoyed living in the country and cherished the opportunity to save stray dogs, feed wild birds and raise catfish in a pond. If she had a regret it would be that she was not able to spend more time with the wonderful people here.

She was preceded in death by her parents, one toddler, two infant sons, and her beloved husband, John. She is survived by sons David, of Wrightwood, California, Eric of Alton, and David’s wife, Lori, and grand-daughter Stephanie Keck or Aurora, Colorado. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. July 2, 2010at the Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church, with Brother Edward Casey officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of the Clary Funeral Home of Alton, Missouri.

NOTE: Do not know if Lynda actually graduated from BHS as she was married in her junior year and I do not have a 1958 yearbook to see if ther is a senior photo of her.