Obituary for Linda Elizabeth Valentine Pinson

On April 26, 2026, Linda Elizabeth Valentine Pinson, 76, left this earth to be with her Heavenly Lord and Saviour.

Born in Maryville, Tennessee on December 3, 1949, Linda was the daughter of the late Howard and Betty Nazerian Valentine. Howard worked on various government contracts for Lockheed-Martin throughout the country. Linda primarily grew up in Cumming, GA and Sandusky, OH. After graduating from Sandusky high school, she received a B. A. in both English and History from Mercer University and a Master’s in Education from North Georgia College in Dahlonega.

Linda had a desire to teach and began her career in Forsyth County, GA in the early ‘70s. Eventually she found great satisfaction teaching English to College Bound Seniors who still talk about the wonderful experience of having her as a teacher. She would assign term papers and read them all night in order to return the corrected papers to her students as quickly as possible. She would take students to the library at North Georgia College so they could experience studying in a college level environment.

In 1979 she met Joe Pinson who was beginning his teaching career at Forsyth County High. The following year they began dating and were married in July 1981.

The following year Joe changed career paths joining the new Lockheed (now Lockheed-Martin) facility in Austin, TX and Linda moved from high to middle school education. They lived in Austin for four years and in 1986 when Joe transferred to Kings Bay in South Georgia. They lived on Amelia Island and Linda continued teaching middle school. Another transfer would take them to California and the Silicon Valley in 1989. Schools had already begun so Linda left teaching and joined Bay Networks, a Local Area Networking company where she would eventually become Manager of Administrative Services and support the VP-CFO and VP-World Wide Marketing. A final relocation came in 1997 when they returned to Florida and settled in Rockledge. There Linda began her final career joining Lockheed Martin and supporting the Navy customer in Technical Data and Information Services as a Systems Analyst at Cape Canaveral. She retired in July 2024 having enjoyed 25 years with the company.

Linda received many accolades during her work life. She was named district Georgia Star Teacher twice. She served as Department Chair while teaching both in Georgia and Texas. During the summers while in Texas, she taught classes on new skills for other educators. She received numerous awards and honors at both Bay Networks and Lockheed Martin. In addition to her regular duties at Lockheed Martin, she became a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and traveled throughout the US teaching both Lockheed-Martin and Navy personnel various techniques of working smarter in the corporate world and also certifying new instructors. Most important to Linda was the respect she both received from and gave to everyone be they students, parents or her peers in Education, Local Area Networking, Lockheed-Martin or the Navy. Linda was loved by everyone. She was a fantastic cook and loved doing it. At one point she had over 800 cookbooks. She and Joe started a small catering business while living in north Florida. They loved entertaining and were known for their parties, especially during the Christmas holidays. Their homes were decorated to the nines with trees in every room and decorations inside and out. She loved listening to Joe play the piano and sing. She became involved in his love of Antique Automobiles and could be sometimes seen helping work on their Cadillacs and she had her dream Mustang. She served as President of the Cape Canaveral Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) and held other offices in that organization as well. And you often found her in Casinos in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Reno, South Florida and Murphy, NC with a smile on her face as she usually came away with more than she invested. Linda loved her home, family, traveling and history and wrote a book about Mountain Folklore as part of her Master’s program. She loved sports including tennis, the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tennessee Vols. She loved her poodles (her fur children) Mango and Coal and others through the years. And Mango and Coal definitely miss their mom. She loved her Church and she loved God. But Joe was absolutely her life and she was his.

She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Joe Pinson, sisters-in-law Nancy Barfield and Edith Pinson, Aunts Patsy Childers and Loretta Nazerian, Uncle Gene Simonds, nieces and nephews Sylvia Pinson, Lynn Charles, Jeff and Lana Norris, Christy Barfield, Ed and Stacey Pinson and their children and grandchildren and countless cousins and friends. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brothers-in-law Jackie Pinson and Ed Barfield, niece Shannon Pinson Burke and her very special sister from another mother, Gail Corn.

Linda loved everyone, but she had a special group of friends she held close to her heart - Cindy Stickler, Cyndy Thomas, Annette Gordon, Anna White, Chris and Sandy Solarek, Pete and Ines Campos, Lora Winner, Dot Willard, Ronnie and Denise Miller, Sue Blackburn, Nadine Simonds, Joyce Kephart, Roy Valentine, Shelia Kirby, Michael Mullis, Jeff and Miriam Tomberlin, Alan Mullis, Betty Gravitt, Terry Ellis, Betsey White, Maryellen and Coley Epperson, Marion Klepper, Glenda Hill, Nick Fasy and Larry Grant.

A Celebration of Linda’s Wonderful Life will take place on Thursday September 24th, at 11 a.m. at the Townson Rose Funeral Home in Murphy, NC. The address is 138 Peachtree Street. The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 a.m. Inurnment will be at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens in Murphy, NC at a later date. Memorials in Linda’s memory may be made to Vitas Hospice at (http://vitascommunityconnection,org/) or to the First Baptist Church of Cocoa Youth Ministry (cocoabaptist.org).

A special thank you to the staff of Vitas Hospice in Rockledge who made Linda’s last days so comfortable, to Dr. Liv Florescu and his staff and to Diane Gaines, Barbara Wheaton, Kasha Harrell, Nick Fasy, Rob Martin, Jeff Tomberlin, Alan Foster, Pastor Dean Williamson and so many who helped care and prayed for Linda throughout this journey. She fought the hard fight and fought it well – it is now time for her to rest.

Townson-Rose Funeral Home is in charge of all local arrangements.