Linda Carole Kane

It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of our beloved Linda. She lived remarkably well and full of love before her Alzheimer’s diagnosis—and remarkably well and full of love with Alzheimer’s disease for almost 25 years—before passing peacefully at the end, surrounded by love. Everyone in her memory care home at The Regency in Oak Harbor sang Amazing Grace for her, and for us, as she left her home of more than 8 years for the last time. She was deeply loved by everyone who knew her.

Linda was born to Dolores “Del” and Marvin “Bub” Berg in Webster, South Dakota, and she grew up in Lily, South Dakota. The oldest of six, she was a bubbly, happy kid and a caregiver from the start, helping raise her two younger sisters and three younger brothers while their busy parents worked, and farmed, and helped at church and in the broader community. Linda loved school, reading, music, being with family and friends, and visiting her grandparent’s store in Lily. She loved to laugh. She was also a cheerleader and went to Girl’s State as a representative of her school in 1964. After graduating from Bristol high school in 1965, she moved to Sioux Falls, where she quickly made life-long friends—Jo, Jodi, and Doreen—and graduated from the South Dakota Hairstyling Academy. The owner of the academy hired her to help run his salon, and she cut hair professionally for a while and then spent most of her adult life cutting and styling hair for her family and friends. She met Jim during those early years in Sioux Falls, and they married on April 20, 1969 at the Lily Lutheran Church in Lily.

Their daughters Lori and Jennifer came along in the years that followed. Linda loved being a mom and a sister and an aunt and a babysitter for friends and family. She always smiled and waved at babies and young children wherever she went. She loved spending summers going to the cabin at Enemy Swim Lake, near Waubay, South Dakota, where Linda’s grandparents and her parents had cabins, and Jim and Linda bought their own cabin, too. The entire extended family gathered at the lake in the summers. As Lori and Jen got older, Linda also worked at Mr. C’s sandwich shop and then at Brigita’s gift shop in Sioux Falls, where she made more friends.

Linda loved helping others, and she especially loved the times when her sister Bonnie came to stay with the family, and when her friend Mary came to stay with the family, and when brother Larry came to stay with the family. Since husband Jim was a pilot, the family also travelled often and loved spending time near oceans and on sunny beaches together, especially to escape South Dakota mid-winter. She also especially loved gathering with and traveling with the Giesens. Linda was also a member of the Christian Women’s Club and made uncountable dozens of cookies fundraising for her daughters’ schools—both Calvin Christian and Sioux Falls Christian High School. She drove carpool for years, and she helped her kids sell everything from magazines to chocolate bars and cooking spices to fund class trips. She helped organize whole Skyline Heights neighborhood garage sales for years. Linda loved to laugh, and we all loved to laugh with her. For her 35-year high school reunion, she listed her hobbies as boating and fishing, sewing, reading, flower gardening, traveling, snorkeling, scuba diving, and entertaining friends and family. She was a great cook and baker, too. Watching her family fish together was her idea of fishing. In “retirement,” Linda and Jim joined sister Gloria and her husband John in purchasing the Dakota Diner in Webster. They also regularly traveled to Seattle to visit daughter Lori and to Nevada and California to visit daughter, Jen.

Jim and Linda lived together in Sioux Falls for 47 years. As snow birds they moved to Mesa, AZ with friends for the winters of 2011 through 2016, where they loved going to music concerts, dancing, walking, relaxing by the pool, exploring the area, and almost daily afternoon happy hours with neighbors. She also loved that so many of their South Dakota friends also showed up as snowbirds in Arizona—especially Jodi & Darrell Stitt, Jo & Lon Giesen, Jim Sharenbrock, and Rita & Wally Osgood.

In 2015, daughter Jen and son-in-law Cam welcomed daughter Joceyln into the world. Linda was overjoyed to have a granddaughter and for her remaining years the word “Jocelyn” always made her smile widely, as did the hearing the names Jim, Jen, Bonnie, GoGo, Jo, Jodi, and Lori. As Linda’s Alzheimer’s disease symptoms worsened, in 2016 Jim and Linda moved to Whidbey Island to be closer to daughter Lori, son-in-law Daniel, and the caregiving support of their new Regency on Whidbey neighborhood. Linda loved Whidbey, especially the beaches, Oak Harbor, their Regency friends, Langley, more time with Lori and Daniel, and when friends and family came to visit.

With Jim just a block away in the Regency’s cottages, Linda moved into her memory care home at the Regency in October 2017, where she thrived for more than 8 years being surrounded round-the-clock by so many loving and devoted people—from caregivers and nurses (thanks Emy & so many dear-to-us others) to laundry staff (thank you, dear Alicia), kitchen staff, activities directors, receptionists, and other residents and their families. Even with advancing Alzheimer’s disease, Linda made friends easily in her early years in memory care, and we have fond memories of her hugging strangers as family, walking laps both inside and outside in the garden with her new friends June and Julie, relaxing in front of the fire place with hot cocoa (a place she called “Starbucks” when we were together), and of she and her friends “shopping” together—keeping staff on their feet as the usually sweet and always mischievous trio happily moved items from room to room. Linda—who loved to laugh—never stopped laughing. In her final years, whenever Jim and Lori laughed in her presence, Linda laughed too. So, we told funny stories, shared jokes and songs, and watched funny old sitcom TV shows, and we laughed together into her last days.

Linda is survived by her husband of 56 years, Jim Kane of Oak Harbor, WA, her daughter Lori Kane (spouse Daniel Gregory) of Langley, WA, and her daughter Jennifer Kane (spouse Cam Newlin), and granddaughter Jocelyn of Las Vegas, NV. She’s survived by her beloved sisters Gloria “GoGo” Ewalt (John) of Webster, SD and Bonnie Berg of Sioux Falls, SD and brothers Steve Berg (Susan) of Lily, SD and Larry Berg of Webster, SD. And her beloved sisters-in-law Becky Berg of Dubuque, Iowa, Joan Berg of Clark, SD, and Judy Kane of Sioux City, Iowa. She’s also survived by many beloved nieces and nephews including Lisa, Kasey, Logan, Peter, Melissa, Jason, Brad, Cory, Amy, Dan, Lisa, Joe, Matt, and Susan and their families. Linda was preceded in death by her parents, Dolores and Marvin Berg, and by her youngest brother, Mike Berg.

The family is having an informal celebration of life gathering in the Bistro room at The Regency on Whidbey in Oak Harbor at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 27th. A Celebration of Life gathering will take place on Saturday, July 11, 2026 from 1:30 to 4 pm in the events room at Roots Kitchen in the historic Fiksdal building at 621 Main St, Webster, SD 57274. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association or to your favorite children-supporting non-profit organization.