Linda Geraldine Sylvester

Linda’s Life Story-A Legacy of Love.

Linda Geraldine Sylvester was born October 20,1946 in Kansas City, Missouri to Lawrence and Charline Miller. She was their only daughter and had four brothers that she loved dearly, Cecil, Larry, Phil and Greg Miller.

As a wonderful wife.

John and Linda met at the Broadway Baptist Church Young Adults program through mutual friends. John first noticed Linda’s laughter, sense of humor and her friendship to others. He actually set her up on several dates with a few other friends before he realized he wanted to date her himself and they quickly fell in love and he asked her to marry him on his birthday December 18, 1966, and they were married right after John graduated from The KC Art Institute on Saturday night, June 3, 1967, surrounded by family and friends. John was 25 and Linda was 20. Many of the friends who joined in celebrating their wedding are still dear friends and were part of their community and lives through their 59 years of marriage experiencing life, building families and having adventures together.

From that day, John and Linda built a beautiful life together centered on Jesus and filled with love. John and Linda were known for their excellent dance moves, award winning handmade Halloween costumes, lots of laughter, sharing entertaining stories and bringing joy everywhere they went together.

They also enjoyed traveling together and had adventures in England, Ireland, Italy, France, Canada and Israel and took vacations to over to 25 of the US states together. They built a Christ centered foundation for their marriage that endured 59 years allowing them to extend their love to lifelong friends, neighbors, family and two daughters -Jessica and Rachel who later added five grandchildren and three special kids to the family: Cash, Phoebe, Emerson, Isaac and Trudie who John and Linda deeply loved and cherished. They also had the privilege of loving Girts, Inga and Maksym from Latvia and Ukraine as extended grandkids and always held each of them close to their hearts.

As a selfless, generous mom.

Linda, in her role as mom, is where her selflessness and generosity knew no bounds. Jessica and Rachel were the luckiest to have her as their mom. She modeled a selfless love, how to follow Jesus, to let go of the little things and to live life to the fullest. Family was everything to her and she taught them to be confident, independent, honest and to seek adventure, follow their dreams and to be generous with everyone they met-with their time, kindness, laughter, resources, and their love. She made them feel safe and secure because her love was constant, consistent and unwavering from the moment they arrived in the world to today. She showed them how to navigate and keep living in spite of deep sorrow, how to find wild joy in life and that everyday matters and to live with a full heart, forgiving when it was needed, to say sorry, to hug it out, to love big and to not to be too hard on yourself.

She modeled working hard, showing up for people when they needed you the most and how to care for and be in lifelong relationships with friends and with their spouses and kids. She made life fun, often sneaking money into their purse or pocket when leaving on a trip even if it was for work, she would say find something fun to do or see and make a memory.

She supported their adventures whether it was to move to New York, take the back roads to get a change of perspective, get in a white water river raft with them or encouraging them to go climb those 14ers – to go and to have all the adventures. She showed them what it looked like to fight for the best life despite the circumstances of the moment and to be present and live life. She was courageous and was not afraid to stand up for them, once marching straight into the school principal’s office to set the record straight. She read to their classes, brought art into the school, took them to march in parades, spent hours at their games, sat through choir and band concerts and performances and waited in the car for hours while they practiced sports. She lifted us up, shared her life and stories with us and showed us how to be real with people. She taught them how to be friends, to serve with gratefulness, to protect their hearts but to always keep them open, to become moms, care givers, thinkers, dreamers and how to make the day to day magical whenever possible.

She taught them that an abundance of love was the greatest wealth you could experience. And, as they married Kenny and Matt, she welcomed them as sons into the family unconditionally. She shared her gift of being an amazing hostess and showed them how to always do the hard work around events to ensure everyone was welcomed and comfortable. She knew what they needed before they knew it and always answered when they called, celebrated, cried with them and supported them no matter the circumstances. Jessica and Rachel shared that they know how to live because of how she loved them.

As the greatest Granny (aka NeNe).

Linda created a place for her grandkids to come and be loved, showed up for games in rain, snow, hot sunshine, early mornings, late nights and everything in between in support of their love of basketball, soccer, cheer competitions, art exhibits, musicals and plays, orchestra concerts, violin recitals-any activity the kids tried, Granny was there with a smile and immediately after let the kids know their performance, shots on goal or baskets or the way they played was the best she had ever seen. In her eyes everything they did was the best-win or lose, wrong or right note, messy or clean design – she let them know how proud she was of them. She often dropped off pans of “Granny’s brownies” that always disappeared within a few hours, picked kids up for a little granny after school adventure, dropped off “trip treat bags” to make car rides more fun often with a surprise envelope of trip souvenir or treat money included. And then was thrilled to see the purchases and hear about the trip when we got home. She played endless rounds of board games, cards for hours and read to the kids passing down a shared love of reading and storytelling. She listened to every recap of each day or any event the kids shared with her with great interest. Sharing the events of the day with Granny was one of their favorite things to do.

Granny created many scavenger hunts to make finding birthday gifts more fun or to make saying goodbye easier when they left our houses after a weekend visit. She loved to dance and sing with the kids when they were little, went for long walks, rocked each of them for hours, sat and talked, hosted tea parties, invited them over for PBS mystery marathon nights, played hours of sandwich and pizza shop, built forts, made inside sleigh rides and was even known to move the furniture around in her house so a young and an old(er) baseball player could enjoy a living room transformed into full playing field, batting included. She was always curious about their individual interests allowing them to share with her and always finding a deep connection with each of them that was personal and filled with love.

As a beloved sister.

Linda grew up the only girl with four, at times rowdy and spirited, brothers who ate the last of the chili, stole her bath water and sometimes gave her a hard time, but she still became the boss and leader of the family. She was known as the family historian-knowing who all the aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family were, where everyone was located and remembering something personal about each of them across generations of family.

She stayed in contact with extended family and was the glue that kept everyone connected. After the loss of her brother Phil, she intentionally established a special bond with his daughter Christine throughout her life to keep her connected to his family and Linda loved being part of her life.

Linda was a sister who was always happy, with a big, beautiful smile on her face, her mood always good, she was fun, full of laughter and a mentor and role model for a way of living that was warm, loving and always giving her time and gifts to others. Her brothers say she picked a great husband in John who fell right into the fold of their family. She was a sister anyone and everyone would have wanted as their own, which her sisters-in-law also recognized as the two families came together. She and her sisters-in-law had many adventures together, wine drinking, laughing and enjoying each other throughout their lives. She lived her life with God at the center of her heart giving her an unmatched capacity to love others in a way that made all her siblings and their spouses and kids feel known deeply. She was always willing to help others, lend a hand and was a strong representation of how to live a good life.

As a treasured Aunt and Great Aunt.

To all her nieces and nephews, she was known as the Aunt who took them on road trips to grandma and grandpa’s house, encouraged adventure and living life, the importance of showing up at their events and games, birthday parties and random weekdays in support of their lives and interests. They loved her slightly ornery side and for creating family event shenanigans including sneaking the kids off to pre-open holiday gifts and then rewrapping them before the official gift opening-a tradition and secret held just between her and them. She always had a “Mary Poppins” bag at the ready that held everything anyone could need at a moment’s notice and was secretly labeled the favorite aunt who also snuck dessert to kids before the meal was served and showed up decked out in her holiday gear. Aunt Linda and Uncle John were known for always being up for the fun – going out dancing with them as adults and celebrating departures for college, wedding days, welcoming new babies, big moves and all around being the most fun.

As a cherished and lifelong friend.

Linda had friends in her life that go back all the way to kindergarten, grade school and middle school. She met and befriended people in the neighborhood, had dear friends at work, built relationships with the moms of her kids’ friends, met new people on trips, through church and even the volunteers and healthcare providers at the cancer treatment center would call her friend. When Linda was your friend, you knew if there was a need, she was there. In hard times she had the words to give you peace. She was a known hard worker-never avoiding what was difficult or challenging. When it was time to play, she was full throttle. She valued her relationships and laughed often and loved always. Her life friends met every Wednesday throughout her life to laugh, share stories, eat treats and experience life together. This group of women gave her strength, a lifeline and supported her family through their lives too-Linda believed friendships that ran deep were the best kind. They would say we all knew when life threw us a curve ball that Linda would be there to cheer us on, show up with a meal, serve us or crawl into bed and cry with us. Her love was holy and always at the right time. She was your friend forever.

A legacy of Love.

Linda loved each of us with her whole heart-every day. We all have at least one Linda story that is life changing in some way that is tucked in our hearts. Her beautiful smile lit up the room, warmed your heart and gave you the sense of home-no matter where you were. She was the definition of strength and never stopped fighting so she would have more time with each of us and be present while with us. Her love was beyond comprehension for most people who met her. She drew you in, made you feel included, helped you feel known, cared for and adored. While at the same time she had a level of spunk, challenged your thinking, held you accountable and shared her dad’s orneriness and her mom’s competitive spirit and lived in a way that made every day moments feel special. Loving was her life. She made it easy to love her, and she made us all feel loved. Love is ultimately her greatest legacy. We will miss her every day and hope that our lives from here reflect and continue her legacy of love.

Linda is survived by her husband John Sylvester (Leawood, KS), daughters Jessica Pflumm (Matt), Rachel Durbin (Kenny) and four grandchildren Phoebe and Trudie Pflumm, Cash and Emerson Durbin. And two brothers Larry (Cindy) Miller and Greg (Kathy) Miller. She was preceded in death by her parents and two of her brothers Phil and Cecil Miller and her grandson Isaac Pflumm whom she always carried in her heart with love.

Service information:

Linda’s services will be at 10am CT on October 10, 2026, at Amos Family Funeral Home located at 10901 Johnson Dr, Shawnee, KS 66203. A celebration of life lunch will be served at the Durbin Home directly after the services. For those overseas or who cannot make it to Kansas, the service will be live streamed with a link below in the "Service Schedule" tab. The link will be live for 30 days.

Honoring Linda. In lieu of flowers, the family received amazing support and care from Cancer Action of Kansas (Cancer Action KC 7010 W. 107th Street Suite 110 Overland Park, KS 66212) and encourages donations to this amazing non-profit organization for anyone who feels led to give in Linda’s name to help other families facing and fighting cancer with their loved ones.