Linda Salles-Vodicka, 76, of Franklin, Massachusetts, went to be with the Lord on November 10, 2024 after a courageous battle with cancer. A loving wife, mother and grandmother, Linda spent her last days with family in the house she called home for more than 40 years.
With her husband, Pavel Vodicka, Linda owned and operated Metronome Ballroom Dance Center in Bellingham for 20 years, sharing her love of dancing with countless students. As a dancer and dance instructor, she traveled the world, gliding across dance floors with Pavel and participating with her students in many international competitions. Dance was not only the spark that ignited her love of life, it was the way she expressed that love, giving even the shyest novice a confidence that they carried with them into their own lives.
Born Linda Irene Dalton in 1948 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania – in the words of her mother, Violet Dalton, “at eleven minutes to eleven” – Linda grew up in Medway, MA, attending Medway High School, Northeastern University and the Forsyth School for Dental Hygienists. With her first husband, Bernard Salles (now of Geneva, Illinois) she had two children: Andre Dalton Salles, now of Montgomery, Illinois, and Emily Irene Salles-Ferranti, of Franklin, MA. The four of them moved to Franklin in 1980, where Linda has lived ever since. She worked as a dental hygienist for decades before discovering her love of ballroom dancing and deciding to make it her career.
In 2004 Linda married Pavel, and when not dancing, the two of them devoted their time to their adoring grandchildren, Luke Walter Ferranti (born 2012) and Joshua Bernard Ferranti (born 2014). Linda loved traveling, particularly to visit Pavel’s relatives in the Czech Republic, but loved quiet nights at home with family even more. She was a loyal and devoted friend, and though she could make new friends in any circumstance, many of her closest confidants walked with her for decades. She built a life full of love, brick by brick over many years, and left this earth surrounded by it. She will be deeply and sorely missed.
Linda was preceded in death by her mother Violet Irene (Zorzi) Dalton and her father, Herbert Edwin Dalton Jr., both of Franklin, MA.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 15 at Medway Community Church, where Linda was a longtime member.
Interment will follow at Evergreen Cemetery in Medway.
Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. on Thursday, November 14 at Ginley Funeral Home in Franklin ginleyfuneralhomes.com 131 Main Street, Franklin.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Dana Farber Cancer Institute