Donna Ruth (Linderman) Anderson, after a hard-fought battle, succumbed Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007 to complications from a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her esophagus, from which she had suffered for a year. She was 79.

She was born July 19, 1928 the only child of Roy F. and Lilah (Hineline) Linderman.

In 1951, she married Allen “Moe” Anderson, who survives.

She is also survived by sons Kelly Dale and Scott Allen, sister-in-law Doris (Anderson) Gaines, and several cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A lifelong resident of Liberty Township, She graduated from Liberty High School and DePauw University, majoring in home economics. After working briefly for the Singer Sewing Machine Company, both she and Moe began working at Linderman’s Nursery, which her father and grandfather started in 1928. She and Moe took over the business in 1968, and ran it until they retired in 1990. Her landscape designs have added beauty to countless homes, schools and businesses around Porter and Lake County, and her eye for interesting ornamental plants added variety to local landscapes.

She was especially proud to have raised her sons, Kelly Dale and Scott Allen, who are an opera singer and professor of philosophy, respectively. Over the course of her life, she thoroughly enjoyed golfing, boating, rock-hunting and lapidary arts, sewing, painting, collecting antiques and jewelry, mystery novels, being kind to cats, dogs, birds and other wild animals (especially raccoons), gardening, canning, cooking, and eating, among other pleasures.

In retirement, she spent winters in Phoenix, Ariz., visited Europe, Mexico, and Canada, as well as many U.S. locations to attend Kelly’s concerts or Moe’s WWII Navy reunions. She was most recently a member of Heritage Lutheran Church. She had many lifelong friends among the old-timers in the community, and made many other friends as an adult both here and in Arizona.

Funeral service will be held Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 10:30 a.m. at Moeller Funeral Home 104 Roosevelt Rd., Valparaiso. Interment will follow at Angelcrest Cemetery, Valparaiso.

Visitation will be Tuesday from 4-8 p.m. at the funeral home.

Her family asks that donations be made to either the Porter County Visiting Nurses Association, 501 Marquette Valparaiso 46383, or Heritage Lutheran Church 308 N. Washington, Valparaiso 46383.

moellerfuneralhome.com

Posted 10/29/2007