It is with a broken heart that we are sharing that our sweet and tenacious sister, mother, grandmother, and aunt, Linda Loma Wight, 76, passed away on Christmas Eve morning after struggling to recover from a fall. She is free of the pain and the medical challenges she faced these last 12 years, during which she ferociously protected her independence to the end. Her physical body may have given out, but her heart and spirit carry on. May all who loved her find comfort in our memories and peace knowing she will always be in our hearts.

Born on December 8, 1949, in Thermopolis, Wyoming, to William and Shirley Wight. Her family of mom, dad and six kids were a tight-knit family who had many adventures living in five states before moving to Miles City, Montana, in 1965. There, she met Rick Geist, whom she married just out of high school in 1968. They also started their family there when first daughter Robyn Renee was born. After second daughter Rachel Layne was born, they moved to Ashland, Montana, where Rick started his carpenter career and Linda went to work teaching for a local Head Start program at the St. Labre Indian School. She later said that is where her love for helping disadvantaged people started; those kids always stayed in her heart.

After moving to Colstrip, Montana, Linda went to work for Montana Power. She, Rick, Robyn, and Rachel became involved in the fight for equal rights for women, joined The National Organization of Women (NOW), and attended many rallies calling for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Linda became the President of the Montana Southeastern Chapter of NOW, which is how she met personal idols Sonia Johnson, Bella Abzug, and Gloria Steinem. Still working for Montana Power, she filed a discrimination suit against them.  She and her attorney worked tirelessly to prove the unfair treatment of women by the company and won the lawsuit. She was short in stature but had a big heart and was spunky and tenacious by nature. She knew what she wanted and fought for it, especially equal rights for all!

They then moved to Colorado in the early eighties where they owned and operated Decorating Den for a few years. After divorcing, she and the girls moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be closer to her family. She continued in her own design business for many years, decorating interiors for several hotels, businesses, and family homes. She worked with sister Tracey and brother-in-law Dale Parks on their house design and interior work in Sundance, Utah; it was one of her finest interior decorating accomplishments. She also helped with the redesign of the offices of the industrial building for their printing business Sterling Press.

Linda then worked in the nonprofit world serving adults with disabilities for most of the rest of her life. During her 30 plus years at TURN Community Services, she wore many hats starting as a direct support professional and working her way up to contribute to the fundraising and human resources departments. Her proudest contribution was starting a program that led to clients creating abstract art that would be highlighted in yearly calendars. While at TURN, she met and worked with one of her best friends in life, Cheryl Lovelace Hansen.

In 2021, she moved to the Finger Lakes region of New York state to be near her daughter and son-in-law Robyn and Patrick Hayes. There she continued a special friendship of nearly 20 years with Patrick’s mother Judy Traxler. Our entire family wishes to express sincere appreciation for all the love, care, and support Robyn, Patrick, and Judy provided Linda the past four years while she lived in Cortland and Homer. Linda was so grateful for this time.

An accomplished cellist in her youth, she also created beautiful art in pastels, pencil, and pen and ink. She prided herself in being able to sew anything, including period-accurate costumes for her daughters’ porcelain dolls and many Halloween costumes over their youth.

She was a Yankees fan, a devout Democrat, and enjoyed road trips and exploring new places. Highlights included visiting many national and state parks in the West, traveling to Puerto Rico and swimming in the Caribbean with turtles, and seeing Broadway and all the beautiful bridges in New York City.

Linda loved coffee in the morning (mandatory), wine in the evening (also mandatory), and dark chocolate (any time). A music lover, she listened to almost every genre from classical to disco to rock and moved to their beats by dancing the twist, two step, ballroom, and just to her own tune!  An avid word smith, she treasured reading and sharing books and playing Words with Friends with daily devotion. An animal lover, she adored the three cats who shared her life the last 35 plus years of her life, Leon (originally Noel until it became clear he was a male), Lily, and Fiona, and, of course, her very first kitten, Fluffy.

A people lover until the end, she could strike up a conversation with anyone and wanted to help everyone in need. Dear to her heart were her Wight and Geist families, her second mom Bernice (Geist) Cottom, and her cherished and almost life-long friends Renee (Geist) Corneliusen, Lana Rae, and Cheryl Lovelace Hansen. Also meaningful to her were Geri Shirk, the first friend she made when she moved to Cortland, NY, and Renee Wood and her daughter Ava. She was the biggest fan of her daughters Robyn and Rachel and her grandkids Natasha and Carson; she was extremely proud of their accomplishments and talked about them to anyone she met.

Linda was preceded in death by her parents William and Shirley Wight, sister Laura Anderson, brother Michael Wight, ex-husband Rick Geist, ex-brother-in-law Rodney Geist, and ex-sister-in-law Renee (Geist) Corneliusen.

She is survived by daughters Robyn (Patrick) Hayes and Rachel (Mark) Balboni; brothers Ron (Cathy) Wight and Patrick Wight; sisters Tracey (Dale) Parks and Kay (Jim) Gregory; grandchildren Natasha (Ron) Fischer and Carson Rogers; nieces Kim (Aaron) Newman and Kallie Anderson; Geist family nieces and nephews; and many other great nieces and nephews, cousins, and friends.

Her family is planning a celebration of life to take place in Salt Lake City, likely in late spring. To honor Linda’s spirit of advocacy and love of cats, please consider donating in her memory to one of the following organizations:

Humane Society of Utah (utahhumane.org) 4242 South 300 West, Murray, UT 84107

SPCA of Tompkins County (spcaonline.com) 1640 Hanshaw Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

TURN Community Services (turncommunityservices.org) 423 West 800 South, Suite A-200, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

YWCA Cortland (cortlandywca.org) 14 Clayton Avenue, Cortland, NY 13045