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Linda Feightner loved to travel.
As a young woman, she had plans to travel the world as an interpreter, or as an executive secretary for an international business. As a ticket agent for Capital Airlines in Washington D.C. during World War II, and with a degree in English and a minor in French from Grove City College, she was well on her way.
Love changed those plans, but she passed on her wanderlust spirit to her daughter, Anne Sprout, who worked for Piedmont Airlines as a stewardess. “We would go someplace in the world twice a year,” said Sprout, 64. But no matter how much traveling they did, Greensburg was always home.
Linda Feightner, 95, of Greensburg, died Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, in Elizabeth Seton Memory Care Center. As her three children gathered in her living room at Redmont Village Condominiums just days after their mother's death, the siblings had a solemn realization.
“We're going to miss coming to Greensburg,” Sprout said, adding they grew up in the city. “There's not really a reason for us to come anymore. This still seems like home to us.”
Her brother agreed. “This is home. She was the center for us all,” Mark Feightner said.
Born Dec. 21, 1921, in Greensburg, Linda “DeDe” Byers was the daughter of the late Harry A. Byers and Mary M. Andrews Byers.
Mark Feightner said his mother was born as “Linda Jean,” because she was going to be called “Jeannie.”
“But she couldn't pronounce it and it came out ‘DeDe,' so that's where she got the nickname DeDe,” he said.
Mrs. Feightner worked at Troutman's department store in Greensburg while attending high school.
She married Robert A. Feightner, in 1947, six months after he returned from serving in World War II. They met in high school, when he asked her to the prom.
The children said they will remember their mother as someone who was passionate about living life, committed to volunteer work and community involvement.
In addition to serving on the Greensburg College Club and Greensburg Library Board, Mrs. Feightner logged more than 5,000 hours of volunteer work at Excela Westmoreland Hospital, where she was a member of the Hospital Auxiliary Unit 14.
Mrs. Feightner is predeceased by her husband. She is survived by daughters Melinda Gallagher and husband, Charles, of Mentor, Ohio, and Anne Sprout and husband, Ronald, of Silver Spring, Md.; her son, Mark Feightner and wife, Amy, of Arden, N.C.; five grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Family and friends will be received from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at Kepple-Graft Funeral Home, 524 N. Main St., Greensburg. Entombment will follow at 1 p.m. at St. Clair Cemetery Mausoleum.
Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1298 or dcarr@tribweb.com.
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