Linda Ann Jochim (née Perez) was born October 27, 1949 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It wasn’t long before her parents, Francisco and Alicia Perez, discovered what a special little girl they had on their hands. She began singing commercial jingles from the radio to them when she was still in a high chair. By the age of 4 she was playing piano and would go on to master multiple instruments, including both 6 and 12 string guitar.
When Linda was 12, her parents moved her and her brother, Frank Jr., to the Queen City. She was invited to the Governor’s School for Gifted Children and spent her summers developing her talents, and a taste for Moravian cookies.
At 18 she had a television special in Charlotte, aptly called “Linda”, where she sang amidst 1960’s special effects to familiar songs such as “The [Boy] from Ipanema”. Song was a vital part of her life for her whole life. She performed as the lead singer for the Loonis McGlohon Orchestra and traveled with her own band, Linda Perez and the Beginnings.
She met her true love and life partner while singing with her band. William “Bill” Jochim watched her perform one night and had to meet her. Luckily, he was informed it was her birthday, so he bought champagne for the entire band to earn an introduction. They were married two years later and quickly had two girls of their own.
Never someone to be inactive, Linda joined the church choir and her beautiful renditions of church classics such as “Ave Maria” quickly became legend. When her girls were a little older she got a new band together in Cincinnati, Ohio, which they dubbed “Chameleon”. They played events and functions of all kinds and all of her band mates became like family.
When her eldest daughter, Erin, decided to start a girls golf team at her high school, she just knew she had to help. After many successful years as the Mount Notre Dame girls golf coach, she was voted Coach of the Year by her coaching peers.
In 1999 Linda and Bill moved back to her childhood home of Charlotte, NC. For her love of the game, Linda got a job working at Leatherman’s Golf Learning Center. At the encouragement of the owner, Chris Leatherman, and her husband, Bill, she began the long journey of obtaining her LPGA Class A teaching certification. Her last years were marked with her joy at teaching golf to people of all walks of life. Young or old, abled or disabled, everyone deserved to participate in this game she so dearly loved. She taught NFL players, former football champions and wounded warriors. Kids hoping to earn scholarships to college one day, and also to the autistic. She always made sure to develop a teaching plan appropriate for each individual that took into account their personal strengths and weaknesses. She had great pride in the success of “her girls” on the Providence Day girls' golf team, whom she coached for the past several years.
It would have been easy for someone with her many gifts, from musical prodigy to bowling champion, to figure skating medalist, to beloved golf instructor to so many, to become full of themselves. But that was never her way. Above all else she loved her family and God. She taught her daughters empathy by volunteering with them at the local Humane Society when they lived in Louisville, KY. And her infectious laugh was even more notorious than her singing. She may have been small of stature, but Linda Jochim was larger than life. A true renaissance woman. She will be missed by so many.
Linda is survived by her husband, Bill. Her brother, Frank Perez Jr. Her two daughters, Erin and Corinne. And her 8 month old granddaughter, Reagan Alicia.
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