Linda Barrett Hallett

Linda was born May 17, 1944. She was the eldest of four children born to Jeanne “Joan” Margaret Thomas Barrett and Thomas Wilson Barrett. She is survived by her five children, Dr. Kelly Roy, Robyn Lewis, William Hallett, Jenefer Biggs, and Robert Hallett; and 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild. She is also survived by her sisters Margaret Bake, Sarah Alvis, and brother Tom Barrett.

She comes from a distinguished pedigree, her grandmother, Lilaine Jenefer Rowe Olver Thomas, a London Opera Singer, her grandfather, Moyer Delwyn Thomas, a Rhodes Scholars, and inventor who worked on the Manhattan Project (the Atomic Bomb), her father, a World War II US Air Force Colonel, a chemist and tenured Arizona State University professor, her mother, an accomplished Botanist, singer, song writer and professional seamstress. Linda was humble about her life’s accomplishments; many who knew her may have been unaware of how distinguished and accomplished she was. At 13, she passed an audition to play violin with the Phoenix Youth Symphony, a very respected subsidiary of the Phoenix Symphony. At Tempe Union High School, she cultivated her talent in choir and drama as an amazing soprano, like her grandmother and mother before her. At 18, she was invited to perform in Salzburg Austria and won an international competition for budding opera stars. Her talents in the performing arts continued as she received her bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Vocal Performance. During her college years Linda toured Europe again performing with a BYU performance group. After college, as a young woman she performed in many civic functions, becoming well-known for her performance of the soprano solo in Handel’s “The Messiah”. She performed this holiday favorite for many more years.

Linda was a multifaceted woman. Her vocal talent took her from touring in Europe to playing the lead in an American production of “Hello Dolly” in Sao Paulo Brazil (1981). She was a pilot, a painter, an educator, a master seamstress, a flight data analyst for an airline and foremost, a mother. To all of her children, her greatest accomplishment was her talent as a mother. Linda had high standards for how her children were being educated. She was more concerned that they learned process, rather than repetitive memorization and she was not meek in pointing it out to administrators and teachers. Linda was a maverick, unbowed by institutions or hierarchies; she stood for what was practical and fair and was fearless in challenging those that did. As a mother, she gave her children an eternal connection to her and their roots, by painstakingly compiling their ancestry. Linda not only taught her children where they came from and the accomplishments of their family but also ensured she passed that heritage on in the form of an autobiography. Linda passed on the passions of her parents, from her dad a love of science and flying and from her mom the arts and a love of raising children to be mature and successful adults. Linda use to say, “I am not raising children, I am raising adults”. She raised five successful children that can attest she “lived a delightful life”.