LINDA J. LeBEAU

Linda LeBeau loved her TV reruns. 

Her daughter Lisa Knechtel is pretty sure her mother knew all the lines from her favorite “I Love Lucy” episodes: The Vitameatavegamin commercial. The grape stomping. The candy factory.

“She often watched while she was cleaning,” Lisa recalled. “My sister and I have seen them a million times.” 

But Linda’s daughters often drew the line at watching Phillies’ games – regular season or championships – that their mother recorded. Linda was at the World Series in 1980. She split season tickets with a neighbor.

If John Kruk or Kyle Schwarber were having a good night, all the better. She could watch those “good nights” again and again.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Lisa says now. ‘It didn’t matter if they were good or not good. She loved her Phillies.”

Another passion of Linda’s was Neil Diamond. Lisa remembers driving her mom to his concerts – sometimes wearily.

“We had to fight over who would do that,” she said of herself and her identical twin, Laura  Mirenda. 

Linda was just as dedicated to nursing. She was often at the side of her husband, Dr. John LeBeau, a family practitioner with offices in Blackwood and Washington Township. 

“She absolutely loved being a nurse,” Lisa noted. “She was at her finest and her happiest when she was helping people.”

Linda’s personal medical experiences included a 55-year-old surprise. Told she was having twins – in the days before an ultrasound could confirm that – Linda didn’t quite believe it. No way, she argued to the doctor who was about to deliver her babies. 

She still wasn’t entirely convinced when Lisa arrived – until Laura followed her by four minutes.

“She literally had no idea,” Lisa said of her mother’s reaction to the pregnancy, a story Linda loved to share. “She thought the doctor was kidding.”

Lisa describes a mother who was a free spirit, who had two Volkswagens, a yellow Beetle with a flower on the dashboard and a Karmann Ghia.

“She was just a happy person,” Lisa observed. “And she loved cute little cars.”

As a child, Linda moved often with her parents to dozens of homes. She found her permanent residence in Mullica Hill, and she aimed to stay.

“All those moves were very hard for her,” Lisa recounts. “She grew up in about 20 places. Once she was in South Jersey, she didn’t want to leave.”

It was in her home that Linda showed her love for family and friends – with abundant meals. She even fed the mailman.

“She was like a short-order cook,” Lisa marveled. “She would cook for an army and make a million different things.”

Linda made great spaghetti and eggplant parm, and her Thanksgiving included not only turkey, but homemade ravioli that had to be fed into a machine; rolled with a crank; and crimped on the edges, among other steps.

It took days.

All those meals may have been a reflection of Linda’s own experience with food insecurity in nursing school. She “gave religiously” to the Food Bank of South Jersey in Pennsauken.

“She never wanted anybody to be hungry,” Lisa explained.  

Linda’s last few weeks were a fight: The 77-year-old wanted nothing to do with death.

“My mom was very feisty,” her first-born daughter relates. “She was definitely not ready to go.”

Sources: Legacy.com, Earle Funeral Home

WILLIAM W. BAIN JR. 

The Gloucester County Emergency Response Center sounded the final call for Camden firefighter William “Bill” Bain Jr. on March 13, an audio testament to his 30-plus years in the department. 

The center was just one of the professional and civic organizations Bill served for much of his 78 years, according to his obituary. His roles included a stint in the Navy, Deptford mayor, chairman of the Gloucester County Housing Authority, delegate to the Democratic National Convention, faithful Lodge 2708 Elk and supporter of the county animal shelter.

Bill also officiated weddings and asked new brides and grooms to donate to a charity instead of paying him, his obituary notes. He was a diehard Yankees fan who loved giraffes and often sang “I Can Sing a Rainbow” to children, with its admonition to “sing everything you see.” 

Bill did the firefighters’ bed race for charity and once perched himself on the roof of Sam’s Club to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 

“He was a wonderful caring man whose friendship I truly treasured,” MaryBeth Monroe wrote in an online post. “If there was something that needed to be done, it was Bill that made sure that it was.”

And Paul Letizia paid tribute to the colleague he knew for 10 years at the housing authority. 

“Bill’s obituary read that he was a ‘tough guy with the greatest heart,’” Letizia wrote in his online post. “Truer words were never spoken.”

Source: Boucher Funeral Home

Inside the obits
Time to spare

There are all sorts of ways that people spend their spare time. And the obituaries take notice of that. Here are some examples:

Robert E. Mills’ life, his obituary notes, included lots of roulette spins. The Vietnam vet was retired for 20 years, plenty of time for “Lucky Mr. Three” – as he was fondly known – to indulge his hobby. Robert’s obituary goes on to note that he always shared his winnings and was known to sometimes pick up the tab when celebrating them. He was 76.

Isabella Kates DiPietro turned a childhood love of sewing into a lifetime of creativity. Passionate and full of life, as her obituary describes her, Isabella taught others how to sew while still in high school and embarked on a life of design after attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her work, the obituary adds, reflected her spirit, and Isabella always looked smashing in clothes she made herself. She was 25.

Dr. Robert W. Harris was a multi-faceted man and a veterinarian who lived a full life outside of work. An avid builder, he constructed the home where he raised his kids and his own animal hospital, and he used his skills to help charities around the world. A lover of body surfing, sailing and swimming, Robert was also an avid climber: In 2022, he met his long sought-after goal of climbing all 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks. He was 72. 

McKayla Morgan Armbruster had many hobbies: paddleboarding, cooking, learning about gemstones, reading the “Harry Potter” series. She also loved animals – especially cats – and she always talked about them, friends recalled. Belinda Edwards remembered in an online post how McKayla presented her family with a rabbit called Cloud that Edwards’ mother still cares for.  McKayla was 27.

David Leroy Wooters made construction his life’s work, but he was also an avid golfer and fisherman, according to his obituary. He was said to have an infectious sense of humor, never more than when he would playfully tell children not that he lost a right-hand appendage on the job, but from “too much thumb sucking.” And David never minded storms: He always wanted to be the first to walk in fresh snow. He was 81. 

Sources: Legacy.com, The Chapel at Boucher Funeral Home LLC, nj.com, Platt Memorial Chapels Inc., Smart Cremation, Mount Laurel Home for Funerals and Cremation Services.