Linda Owens:
CLASS OF 1969
Easley High SchoolClass of 1969
Easley, SC
University of South Carolina - JournalismClass of 1982
Columbia, SC
University of South CarolinaClass of 1973
Columbia, SC
Linda's Story
After high school, I attended the University of South Carolina for four years and earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism. For three of the four years, my college roommate was my high school best friend, Wanda Vaughan. It is truly fair to say that we spent more time having fun than studying, but we both managed to graduate. Of course, we had a good share of high school friends at USC to help us along with the fun.
After internships during the summer between our junior and senior years, I had moved into a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Columbia on Hampton Street which my parents allowed me to keep my senior year; thus the famous duet was separated as roommates only.
I began my career as a journalist and reporter the Monday after graduation in June 1973, and sometime after I began working for The State newspaper, I started teaching part-time for the USC College of Journalism. Teaching part-time lead me to return to USC in 1980 to earn a masters of arts in journalism so that I could teach full-time in higher education, which I did first at USC Sumter and then for the past 23 years at USC Aiken. I retired early from USC Aiken on July 1, 2008, with more than 28 years service to the USC system.
After college graduation, I shared an apartment with Bunny Smith, my best friend from college, who kicked me...Expand for more
out in 1976 when she married Randy Richardson. Despite geographical separations and marriages, this famous female duet has remained best friends for nearly 40 years.
I married Buddy Whitlaw in 1982 and after 22 years of dating and marriage, we separated and he died in late 1999. I found him dead three weeks later in mid-January. Not pretty. So, I never know whether to check off the box that says divorced or widowed, but technically I'm divorced, even if the ink wasn't dry on the judge's signature. We had no children in our marriage, but three beautiful kids from his previous marriage.
My father, Lindsey, died in 1985, not long after he sold the Huddle and the Easley Ice Cream Parlor. He was really young, barely 70. He had the small cell lung cancer that was inoperable and fatal within five months. My mother, Eleanor, moved here to Aiken in 1988 to be near to me. She died in late 2006 at nearly 90 and was still the "little old lady from Pasadena," still independent as always and driving. In fact, on the day that the blood vessel blew at her brain stem, she driven herself to the local wellness center to swim and work out with weights. I still miss her terribly, and I've always missed my dad.
I'd love to reconnect with old friends. Please e-mail me here and ask for other information that you'd like to know.
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