Linda Diane (Wakefield) Zion

Linda Diane (Wakefield) Zion was in born on May 3 ^rd , 1947 in Wray, CO to O.D. and Lela Wakefield.

Growing up on the farm west of Wray, Linda grew up helping out with the chores that come with raising sheep and her father with corn harvests. She always said that she never wanted to have anything to do with sheep after those years. Linda graduated from Wray High School in 1965 and decided to attended Business school in Denver. It was during those many trips back and forth from Denver to Wray that she met her future husband Lee Charles Zion as he was attending The Colorado School of Mines in Golden at the time and was needing a ride back from Wray.

Against her father’s objections to her marrying a G.I. during the Vietnam War, Linda and Lee were married on December 27 ^th , 1968 at the United Methodist Church in Wray. Linda stayed in Wray until Lee’s tours in Vietnam were over and that is when the real adventures of her life took off.

On December 22 ^nd , 1971, Linda and Lee welcomed a daughter, Michelle Lee, born at Fort Huachuca, AZ, to the family. Four years later, another daughter, Mary Katherine was born January 10 ^th , 1976 on the opposite side of the US in Langdon, North Dakota.

It seemed that Linda was made to be a military wife as she always took their many moves, 8 in total, with stride. Linda always told her daughters that the most difficult place she was ever stationed at with Lee was in Izmir, Turkey where she had to adapt to filling the bathtub with water by 7 in the morning for the days water needs as the water was rationed at the time. The earthquakes that happened there were not as bad, she would say.  She was a stay- at -home mom until the oldest, Michelle was in 5 ^th grade. At that point while living at Fort Gordon, GA, Linda got a job with the Girl Scouts of America in Augusta, GA. She was their secretary for the district and loved every minute of it. The only down -side of the job was every April it was a nightmare getting to work as her job was right across the street from Augusta National Golf Course where the Masters are held. Although she loved watching the Masters on TV she loathed how much traffic a game can cause where all they do is hit a little white ball.

It was nothing for Linda upon arriving at a new post with map in hand to take off in the car on the weekends with the girls in tow to find out what was out there where they were living now. She always made sure that the girls got to see the history of the places and states they were living in. If that meant leaving Lee at home to go to Ft. Sumpter, GA, so be it. It didn’t even phase her to do the same thing while they were stationed overseas in Germany despite the language barrier taking the girls to go see the castles and World War II historical sites.

On their last tour Germany, while living in Worms, Linda decided she was going to try to get a job where it required her to get a Top-Secret security clearance. As always, once she set her mind to something she got it. That made for pretty good conversations at the dinner table at night with both Linda and Lee asking how their respective days were and neither one being able to talk about it.

After Lee finally retired from the Army in 1994, they both returned to Wray and moved out to the Vernon area. Linda at that point could not just sit at home and be “retired”, so she decided to go and get a job at Great Plains COOP where she worked for several years until she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Since Linda was bullheaded as always, she survived that fight and still decided that she was not ready to just sit at home. She went to work for the City of Wray for many more years after that.

After her husband Lee passed away, Linda never lost the traveling bug. Much to the chagrin of her daughters, she would just tell them that she was going on a road trip to Texas or Georgia or even back to Germany for a 2-week cruise down the Rhine. She would have no part of them saying they were going with her either. When her grand-daughters were old enough to enjoy it, she decided that she would take them to Walt Disney World in Florida just because she was always wanting to go back but didn’t want to go have fun on her own. And just because she wanted to go back to Hawaii one last time she decided she better at least take her daughter, Michelle and her husband, Dennis with her or she knew she would never hear the end of it.

As with most mothers, the highlight of her life was here grand-daughters, Hannah, Jenna, Mollie and Ella. If you ask anyone at Hillcrest Care Center where she was living up until the time of her death, her face always lit up when she was talking about them.

Linda passed peacefully on December 16 ^th , 2020. She is preceded in death by her parents, O.D. and Lela Wakefield; her sister, Karla Boehle; her husband, Lee Charles Zion and daughter, Mary Cobb.

She is survived by her daughter, Michelle and husband, Dennis Davis, grand-daughters, Hannah and Jenna Gelvin and Mollie and Ella Cobb, brother-in-law, John Zion and his wife, Patty; brother-in-law, J Paul Zion and his wife, Nellie, and sister-in-law, Joyce Zion-Williams and her husband, Jim. Along with many nieces and nephews.

A Visitation/Viewing will be held on Tuesday, December 22, 2020 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Schmidt-Jones Funeral Home in Wray, Colorado.

A Funeral Service will be held on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, 2:00 p.m. at the Wray United Methodist Church in Wray, Colorado with Pastor Ben Wentworth officiating.

Memorials may be sent to the American Legion Auxiliary. Schmidt-Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.