Linda Ann Colby slipped quietly into eternal life early on the morning of 13 December 2014. She was born 13 June 1942 in Dallas, Texas, the sixth child of Leroy Smith and Josie Mae Prindle. Linda was a graduate of Adamson High School in Dallas, where she was honored in her senior year as the school's top Home Economics student. As an adult, she studied vocal performance and art at Northlake College in Irving, Texas, and she continued to take watercolor classes until the closing months of her life. Many of her paintings hang as treasured mementos in the homes of family members. Guy Irving Colby IV and Linda Ann Smith were married 22 July 1961 in Poteau, Oklahoma, and were sealed for time and eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on 5 June 1963. To their union were born 11 children. They bought a home in Irving in 1968, and they have lived there for more than 46 years. Linda's life was bound up in the lives of her children; she nurtured, taught, and mentored them at home and immersed herself in their many activities and interests. She was an active PTA member, and over the course of 40 years, she served in various leadership capacities in the Boy Scouts of America, both at the unit and at the district level. A natural athlete, she was a certified Water Safety Instructor, and she taught swimming and lifesaving for the Red Cross for many years. Her extensive Red Cross First Aid training also qualified her to serve as a volunteer nurse's aide at her children's elementary school. In addition, she served as director of Church sports and camping programs for teenage girls. A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Linda had a deep and abiding love for her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and a passionate loyalty to His earthly kingdom. She served gladly and joyfully in the Primary, Young Women, and Relief Society organizations, and with her husband, filled Church Service missionary assignments in the Dallas Texas Temple and as supervisor of the Dallas Regional Bishops' Storehouse. From 1999 to 2007, and again from 2009 to 2014, she served faithfully as a temple ordinance worker, a calling from which she was released less than two weeks before her passing. Indeed, her life was marked by a desire to serve others, and even after an accumulation of health issues began to limit her physically, she always made herself available to assist and bring relief to those whose needs she considered greater than her own. No overview of Linda's life would be complete without mention of her deep love for music. A talented musician, she was student conductor of her high school orchestra, in which she also played viola. As a teenager, she studied conducting under J. Spencer Cornwall, conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Blessed with a strong soprano voice, she was involved for much of her life in Church and community musical programs, including a women's community choir and a production of Handel's Messiah. She sang in the Tabernacle with the Brigham Young University Chorale at the Church's April 1963 General Conference, and she performed with a regional Church women's choir at the 1968 San Antonio World's Fair. Due to her encouragement, all eleven of her children have been involved in musical pursuits. Linda was fiercely committed to her family, and she considered her children and grandchildren to be her greatest treasure. She delighted in their company and in their accomplishments, and one of her chief joys was selecting or handcrafting gifts for her large and far flung posterity. Her love extended as well to her children's spouses, whom she welcomed warmly and wholeheartedly into her family. She was naturally unselfish, unfailingly kind, and possessed of a rare, genuine humility of spirit. We shall miss her grievously, but we are sustained by that same faith in the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ which characterized her entire life. Linda was preceded in death by her parents, four brothers, and three sisters. She is survived by her husband, Guy Irving Colby IV, of Irving; brother, Dennis Vernon (and wife Juanita) Smith, of Willcox, Arizona; sister, Nancy Elizabeth (and husband Leroy) Pectol, of Roosevelt, Utah; son Guy Irving Colby V, of Irving; daughter Melinda Kay (and husband Mitchell) Kahl, of Ft. Worth; daughter Marion Dell (and husband Daniel) Minnich, of Ft. Worth; son Christopher Michael (and wife Diana) Colby, of Ft. Worth; son Aaron Faulder Colby of Bemidji, Minnesota; daughter Patience Elizabeth (and husband Jon) Frazier, of Azle; daughter Katharine Ann (and husband Daniel) Reynolds, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; son Nathanael David (and wife Sherilyn) Colby, of Spanish Fork, Utah; son Jared Benjamin (and wife Julie) Colby, of Ft. Worth; son Cedric Arthur (and wife Jennifer) Colby, of Conroe; son Beren Alexander (and wife Kristina) Colby, of Ammon, Idaho; forty-three grandchildren (three of whom are currently serving as full time missionaries); and three great-grandchildren. Funeral services will held at 1:00 PM Saturday, 20 December 2014, at the Irving Ward chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1553 So. Story Road, Irving, Texas.