Linda Rose Hempe

Before we talk about the amazing wonderful world who was Linda Hempe, the recording you just heard takes us back to March 6, 1968. The occasion was a Master’s recital of my compositions and Linda played an Interlude and Fugue on that program - the scene was a packed auditorium at the University of Oregon School of Music - and on the concert stage, Linda and a 9 foot Steinway Grand Piano - Linda always called it, “THE KING”, and when she was seated at the piano there was NO DOUBT who was in charge and that what you were about to hear would be extraordinary ---- Linda and the piano were one.

She was born in Aberdeen, Washington - the daughter of John and Ruth MacNaughton. Before Linda started school the family moved to Portland and she went to Beaumont Public School in the Hollywood District. She started taking piano lessons at an early age from a local teacher and also studied the violin. Growing up as an only child brought some challenges because both of her parents worked full-time. As her musical education progressed it became clear that Linda had unusual talent and excelled at both piano and violin, and finally had to make a choice to let the violin go and concentrate on the piano. At grade six Linda’s folks realized that their unusually gifted daughter was also very sensitive and they wanted her to have the influence and the more gentle environment of a Christian school and Linda, having accepted the Lord as her Personal Savior at an early age, enrolled at Portland Christian school, and continued there until graduating from high school. While she was an excellent student and earned top grades, her development at the piano took a major step forward when she began lessons with Lillian Pettibone, one of the top teachers in the Portland area. Linda also enrolled in the Portland Christian Concert Choir and began singing solos, a prelude to what would become an outstanding career as a soloist and opera singer, as well as singing solos in the church.

Linda enrolled at Lewis and Clark College and began entering the annual Portland Junior Symphony (known currently as the Portland Youth Philharmonic) Concerto Contests. In the first year she played a Bach concerto and gained experience; however in her second try she played a difficult Chopin Piano Concerto, so technically demanding that only two contestants could even learn the piece, and Linda was the runner up. At this point she and her mother made a decision to change piano teachers - there were some issues, and there was another seasoned and highly respected piano teacher in the Portland area - Nellie Tholen. Miss Tholen took Linda to the heights of piano performance and in her third try in the Concerto contest Linda competed and won over 20 other contestants, playing the Beethoven 2nd Piano Concerto in B flat, under the conductor Jacob Avshalomov. She performed with the orchestra in front of 3,000 people at what was then known as the Civic Auditorium and received rave reviews. This performance was recorded and later played from Carnegie Hall on a National CBS Sunday afternoon radio program - Linda had indeed hit the big time. As a reward for her hard work and dedication her generous parents bought Linda a beautiful black six foot Steinway Grand Piano. This world class instrument currently resides in our home in a place of honor in the dining room.

So far the story of Linda’s life sounds a little bit like a Hollywood movie where music always plays and everyone dances and sings their way to happiness with flowers and an MGM studio ending; however, there seem to be some immutable forces which operate in this life - with “Off the Chart” brain power and talent beyond what most of us ever experience, comes a certain cost - enter the beginnings of a life long sensitivity to stress and a struggle with depression and the ever elusive “Stability”. It is a “Real Thing” and in her early twenties Linda took some time off to rest, regain her strength and energy. She worked full time in a doctor’s office, and then enrolled at Portland State University to finish her career - and in September of her senior year this strange looking guy with a crew cut and desert boots showed up in her “Harmonic and Structural Analysis” and her “Counterpoint Class”. That would be -------- ME.

We saw each other 4 hours a week in class, and I became aware that this absolutely beautiful girl was the darling of the music department, loved by the Dean, John Steen, and highly respected both for her singing and piano ability. Linda sang the lead in two opera productions for Fall and Winter term, and I started following her around to rehearsals and performances, but it took me from the end of September to March to get up the nerve to invite her out on a date - but some first date this was. One beautiful March day the sun was out and after class I asked her if she might like to drive down to the beach for the afternoon. Amazingly, she said yes and we had a fairy tale like trip down to Seaside, walked on the sand by the ocean, grabbed a bite to eat and drove home. Linda was so captivating I told her I had to work a few hours, but would she like to go out after work - I would pick her up after 10:00 pm, much to the pacing watchful concern of her mother - who was this guy that comes so late?? In this story you have to remember that over time the Lord changes us and we become new creatures, but at this point in the story we came from two quite different worlds and my idea of the best place to go was the premier restaurant in Portland for Jazz piano, so there we went and had a magical evening right out of the most amazing experiences one can recall, and the owner of the restaurant called me aside and said, “Don’t let this one get away - she is enchanting and you’ll never do better!” My great claim to fame was that he invited me to sit in with his trio and play a few tunes on the piano, which in that world did have a certain prestige about it.

To keep this narrative rolling, Linda graduated from Portland State and was the first ever Portland State student to be awarded a 3 year title 4 Doctoral Fellowship in Music to the University of Washington - completely paid for, a full ride. I headed down to the University of Oregon to begin Masters Degree studies, but over time our long distance phone bills were mounting and I convinced Linda that the U of O was a more fun and less stuffy place - and they would also give her a scholarship.

Linda moved down to Eugene from Seattle and we continued seeing each other. She was in constant demand to accompany the Master’s Students in their recitals, whether it was instrumental or vocal, and all the professors held her in the highest regard because she could play the most difficult music and make their students sound like a million dollars. Linda’s own piano teacher, Gabriel Chodos, was so impressed with her that he encouraged her to consider a major move to New York or Paris and embark on a full blown career as a concert pianist - he thought she was that advanced a performer and could make it on the world stage, but she gave up that dream and we were married in Eugene, Oregon.

A year went by and Missy was born right at a critical point where I was finishing up my degree, Linda was still working on hers, but had to take time off when Missy was born. For several weeks we worked together day and night in our tiny rental house and I think formed a bond that was as profound as any thing that exists in this life. We were taking care of Baby Missy, heating formula, washing diapers, and I was writing a first movement of a piano concerto for piano and full orchestra for a composition Masters thesis, Linda was doing the calligraphy on the manuscript for the orchestral score, and I would hand her two pages a day of the solo part, so that she could practice it and in a matter of weeks we could perform the piece with two pianos at the March 6 recital. We would take Missy in a plastic carrier over to the auditorium and she would take a nap while we rehearsed on two 9 foot grand pianos - it was both completely crazy and magical - and I think the foundation of the deep connection with Linda and I was formed in that period - one of unlimited respect and admiration for each other - and this foundation lasted for our entire life together.

At some point I have to move through the story or we will be here all day. We both got the Masters Degrees and then taught music at Green River Community College in Auburn, Washington for one year - but the Lord had other plans and brought us back to Portland and I changed careers and went from music to accounting, our son John was born, Linda was a full-time mom and we lived life and worked in a couple different churches over time doing choirs, piano and Linda singing solos. Linda was a terrific mom - she loved her kids with all her heart, poured everything she had into their lives, participated and spoke at the Mother’s Fellowship at Portland Christian School, designed a music curriculum for the superintendent and time passed.

When Missy and John were in high school Linda decided to go back to work and she landed a choir director position at a small Christian School - Westside Christian High School. There were only 77 students but the principal was getting pressure to get a larger choir program going. Linda had never directed a choir in her life and had no experience, but she had exceedingly abundantly above the usual talent and drive, so she made the principal a deal - “ Let me have every kid in the high school for two weeks and then let them vote”. Well, you can probably guess the outcome, with her brain power and personality 75 kids stayed in the choir and she went on to establish a super program, raised thousands of dollars, bought them all robes, and had astounding support from all the parents and put on concerts that were something to behold. In that same year, however, she lost 100 pounds, and worked with such intensity that she got ill in the beginning of her second year, and had to let the job go and recover.

The next round of music started in 1985 through 1991 - Linda was hired by Mt. Hood Christian School as the choir director and worked for five years. She loved those kids and they loved her - the fun part for me was that Linda did not have a student to accompany her choir, so I was her accompanist for those five years, and during the run up to the concerts and the annual choir tour I would drive out to the school on my lunch hour and rehearse and then go back to work. She produced a phenomenal amount of high quality choral music sound from these groups, formed a small ensemble, and even taught a drama type class with some select students. If you look out in the foyer you will see 4 large poster type pictures of these choirs for various years. One highlight experience was taking her choir and ensemble to a big Christian School Choir contest in Tacoma, Washington where her ensemble won first prize, her novelty drama ensemble won first prize, her vocal student won best contemporary singer, and her private piano student won the solo piano contest, all this from a high school with about 80 students.

Linda’s school closed in 1991 and she spent some time caring for her aging parents, who both attended Living Hope, and Linda and I began attending Living Hope in January of 1994.

Life was relatively easy going for the next several years and then in 2005 a simple event occurred which influenced Linda for the rest of her days on this earth - she discovered - CAT SHOWS. It happened quite simply - an older cat passed away and we found a breeder on a web site who lived in Seattle and sold Maine Coon cats - Our daughter Missy said we should buy one because they were the biggest domestic cats in the US. Linda met Janice Schafer - a Seattle breeder and we bought a beautiful Brown Patched Tabby Female Maine Coon kitten, Penny - and over time Janice and Linda became absolute best friends and we started going to cat shows. As things turned out, Penny was very shy and did not take to the show ring, but in January of 2008 we bought a new Maine Coon kitten, Tabbypatch Barry Manilow, and then everything exploded. Barry won a few ribbons and a wonderful couple - Cindy and Len Walker, encouraged us to see if Barry could handle flying on a plane and we should travel to out of town cat shows. For some reason I could never understand Linda LOVED the whole travel thing - the airports, shuttle buses, rental cars, motels, restaurants, out of town show halls, winning ribbons, the cat people. For my part, I had to look in the mirror one day and say to myself, “You have a wife in a wheelchair, two canes, a 20 pound cat, a large suitcase, carry on bag, a purse and big cat show luggage - does this make any sense to fly around the country? The answer - Absolutely - so off we went - to Glendale, Reno, Phoenix (twice), Denver, East LA, Palm springs, Santa Barbara and Houston, Texas. Barry earned tons of ribbons, 3,000 points, and 3rd best Premier (altered) cat in our region of the 2009/10 year!!!

Barry retired and a year went by, and then we bought a new kitten, Aslan the Lionhearted, and he is magnificent and weighs 25 pounds, and Linda loved him to pieces.

Through all these adventures Linda and I connected at a very deep and personal level, yet on occasion the dark clouds would once again gather on Linda’s horizon. Over the years I found two things that helped fight depression and anxiety : Car rides and restaurants. We would go out to dinner frequently and talk for hours - sometimes it was almost embarrassing and I thought we should pay the folks at Elmer’s rent for sitting by their fireplace as if it was our living room. We talked about everything - the cat shows, the cat judges, our children, the amazing experiences we had traveling to New York and Washington DC on our 40th anniversary, the choir tours – the subjects were endless and the love and warm regard we held for one another was as close as you get to heaven on this earth. Does life ever get better than feelings that strong developed and nurtured over 4 plus decades?

Missy received a wonderful email from a dear childhood friend of Linda, Jere Van Dyk - who now lives in New York and is a correspondent/consultant for CBS news. He said this about Linda, “She was important to me when I was a boy, always so warm, outgoing, vivacious, and bigger than life. I loved her as a big sister, so loving, and simply wonderful. She made my life better, she was terrific and I loved everything about her, and always will.” In the cat show business two magnificent judges - Brian and Pam Moser took a shine to Linda, were absolutely instrumental in helping us get our new cat, Aslan, and wrote this: “ Linda did make a difference by just being in the room. I will truly miss her, she was the kind of person who just lit up the room.”

So we come to the end of our narrative - as in all life, there are complexities - Linda had terrible arthritis in both knees. She underwent a total knee replacement in August of 2010 but unfortunately we think the arthritis over the years had weakened the femur bone, and on September 1, 2010 she sustained a terrible fracture of the femur bone above the knee replacement. It was surgically repaired, but did not heal, and 14 months later had to have a complete second surgery by a highly skilled trauma surgeon at OHSU, and this time the bone healed, but the stress of all these surgeries and the loss of our son John wore Linda down. She suffered from chronic bronchitis and would develop terrible coughs, there were at least 9 of these in the past 2-3 years. Finally this January we think something changed in her right lung and on January 31, after a visit to her internist, we took a nap in the late morning, and during that time it is possible that a blood clot broke loose and she went to be with the Lord very peacefully, without sirens, the ICU, rehab, more tests and suffering and my possibly not being able to care for her. The Lord was absolutely merciful and gracious - He took Linda unto Himself - to see her parents, her beloved son John, her cat friend Janice, and my worst fears evaporated, that something might happen to me first, or I could no longer comfort and care for her.

I will miss her, Missy will miss her, everyone at the cat shows will miss her - this world has lost a bright and shining star, but our loss is heaven’s gain. Thank you, Linda, for 46 wonderful years - I wouldn’t change a thing - Love Always, Jeff