Linda Dalton

Linda Dalton of Long Island, New York; Sharon, Massachusetts; and Coconut Creek, Florida passed away on Sunday, July 24, 2022 at the age of 71. She was born on October 1, 1950 in New York, New York and grew up on Long Island.

A naturally creative marketer and skilled artist (who hand-made her daughter’s Halloween costumes as long as she’d let her), Linda spent the majority of her career working in advertising. After cutting her chops at Hill Holliday and Stone & Manning in Boston, Linda opened her own agency in 1984, Linda Dalton Advertising. In the early 2000s, she retired from advertising, and started working as a trainer at Why Wait Fitness in Stoughton, MA. Working shift hours changed the way she planned meals, and unleashed inspiration in the kitchen. Linda began experimenting with small, healthy meals that could be packed to go and reheated easily, and ultimately started a blog about healthy cooking.

With social media on the rise, Linda became part of online recipe communities that fueled her passion for cooking and forged new friendships that she cherished. In 2008, Linda was a finalist in Cooking Light magazine’s annual recipe contest; she was flown to New Jersey for the finals where she prepared her Green Bean Salad and appeared in her own YouTube video, years before the term “influencer” was mainstream. In 2013 and 2014, Linda’s recipes through the Just a Pinch group earned her a finalist slot at the World Food Championships, where she competed live against hundreds of home chefs on the streets of Las Vegas and made friendships that sustained the rest of her life.

Linda moved to Coconut Creek, Florida in 2016, eager to escape the frozen winters of the northeast. Here, she reconnected with friendships from childhood and built new relationships that were just as close. She looked forward to playing cards every Monday, exercising in the walking pool most days, and going out to eat with her friends. A voracious reader and wordsmither, she read a book or more a week, played Wordle (and Quordle, and Phoodle, and Canuckle) every day, and ground pencils down to nubs in crossword and Sudoku books.

She is preceded in death by her mother, Elaine Kaufman Dalton and her father, Philip Benjamin Dalton. Linda is survived by her daughter, Lori MacGregor; sister Barbra Reckhow and brother-in-law Wayne Reckhow; and nieces and nephew Alyssa Reckhow, Grant Reckhow, Taylor Reckhow, Jensen Reckhow, and their partners and children. She is also survived by many devastated cousins and friends.

Family and friends are invited to attend a Celebration of Life at the Clubhouse at Wynmoor in Coconut Creek, Florida on Saturday, July 30 from 12-2.