Linda Andres was born on 7/30/1941 in Salt Lake City, UT to Raymond and Bessie Cantrell. She grew up as a child with her younger brother Ray in Barranquilla and Bogota, Columbia; Coral Gables, FL; Levittown, NY; Normandy Park, WA; and Los Altos, CA. The family was constantly on the move because her father worked as a pilot for Avianca and Pan Am Airlines. After graduating from Los Altos High School, she married Ralph Little. They had a daughter, Debora in 1963. After a divorce she was briefly married to Jessie Pipkin, however this did not work out well and they too divorced. While working at Hewlett Packard she met Kent Andres and though reluctant to commit to a third time, eventually married him in the fall of 1976.
Her career essentially started at HP on a printed circuit board assembly line. Her supervisors soon recognized her abilities and trained her to draw mask layouts for printed circuits. During this period she also took night courses in electronics at DeAnza College. In no time she was teaching other bright workers to design printed circuit boards for HP. Her supervisor then transferred her to an integrated circuit (IC) design team where she learned about semiconductor design and became a proficient IC mask layout designer. By the time of her retirement in 1981 she had worked for many engineering teams within HP developing computer and terminal chips in various semiconductor technologies. Once free of the intense demands (60hr weeks) of IC design she enrolled at DeAnza College and then San Jose State University and finally fulfilled her dream in 1987 of achieving a college degree specializing in Ancient History.
She had always had an attraction to sailing and enjoyed the little 14 footer that Kent had when they got married. So in 1983 they made the big step and bought a 27 foot sailboat “D'Artagnan” and started exploring San Francisco Bay with it. A few charter boat vacations later the cruising bug bit her and in 1985 she convinced Kent to purchase “Scheherazade”, a 42 foot serious ocean going cutter. They proceeded to hone their sailing skills, joined a sailing club, and wistfully listened to the tails of ocean going sailing couples. During these early years on the boat, one of Linda's greatest joys was introducing her very young grandchild, Nick, to The Bay and Sacramento Delta. Linda specialized in the skills of canvas stitchery, medicine, nutrition, Spanish, navigation, and of course world history while Kent concentrated on diesel repair, nautical equipment maintenance, electrical systems, electronics, and also navigation. Finally in 1989 Kent quit his job, they rented out their house, and moved onto “Scheherazade”.
Just before the big San Francisco quake of 1989 they and 2 very geriatric pet cats sailed out under the Golden Gate Bridge and headed south. It was the start of what would become a 5 year sailing odyssey where they saw many wonderful things and met some very interesting and nice people from all over the world. Their travels took them down the Pacific coast to Panama stopping at many ports along the way with inland excursions to explore wherever they could. Passing through the awesome, but very intimidating, Panama Canal they headed north through the western Caribbean to Florida and then up to the Chesapeake. After refitting in Florida they followed the course sailor's ever since Columbus had taken across the Atlantic and spent 3 very interesting years exploring the wonders of the Mediterranean. While in the Med Linda (the historian) was in her element and able to study many of the ancient Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Hittite, Jewish, Early Christian, and Egyptian sites she had read about in college.
Finally, after returning to San Francisco Bay for awhile, they sold their hillside home of 23 years and set off again, sailing down to Panama and back up to Florida. They settled in a condo near Jacksonville in 2000. “Scheherazade” took them on another 2 year circumnavigation of the Caribbean with visits to almost all the islands. It was then that Linda rediscovered her love for snorkeling, steel drum music, and Mayan history. Though the high point was probably in Trinidad helping leather back turtles (just hatched from their sandy nest) make it safely to the sea by the light of a full moon.
Her last 6 years were spent bravely fighting recurring, metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer. Between bouts of chemo she managed to design and have built her “dream house” in Fernandina, FL. It is located on a natural salt water marsh meadow with lots of trees and sunsets. She planted a native plant garden and encouraged birds, butterflies, and squirrels to enjoy the natural setting. She finally succumbed to the disease on March 14, 2011. Linda is survived by her husband, Kent in Fernandina FL; her daughter and son-in law, Debora and Tony Rizzo along with their children, Nicholas, Vanessa, Breanna, and Rebecca in Cameron Park, CA; and her brother Ray Cantrell in Savage MN.
Linda has requested that everyone who knew and loved her, plant a tree in her memory or contribute to The Nature Conservancy project to Plant A Billion Trees (www.plantabillion.org).