Linda Joan Blanchard
Oskaloosa, Iowa | Age 63
Linda Joan Blanchard, 63, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, died Thursday, February 4, 2021, at Unity Point Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. She was born August 2, 1957, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Dale and Joan Ball Klauss.
While growing up the family moved to several states for her dad’s work. In 1965, they settled in Des Moines. Linda attended Franklin Junior High and graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in Des Moines in 1975.
Following high school graduation, she worked in the advertising field and as a model for a modeling agency. She found she enjoyed working in sales and during her sales career, she worked for a school fundraiser company and an audio/visual equipment company. Then she worked as a sales rep for Nordic Premiums, now known as American Recognition, a division of Gunderson Jewelry for 29 years. Her customers became some of her best friends.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Congregation members join a song leader in a Christmastime hymn at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Alpena on Sunday.
ALPENA This Christmas season, local churches have had to decide if Christmas Eve will be a silent night.
Throughout 2020, local churches have tried to find the balance between protecting people’s physical safety and filling a spiritual need that, some feel, supersedes even the threat of COVID-19.
As at many other congregations, leaders at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Alpena have wrestled with how best respond to the health concerns and mandates in the state since the coronavirus began sickening Michiganders in February.