Linda Lee (Ault) Ball, beloved wife, mother, grams, and great grammy passed away suddenly April 13, 2025. She was 84 years old.
Linda was born January 30, 1941, to Clyde and Della Ault in Le Roy, Ohio. She grew up on a farm with her older siblings, Dick, Micky, and Pat. She told us stories of farm life, cleaning and sorting eggs, avoiding chickens running with their heads cut off, trying to smoke corn silk, and “borrowing” a tractor with her siblings that ended up in a pond. She graduated from Westfield High School where she was a cheerleader.
After graduating she was set up on a blind date at the Wooster Country Club where she met the love of her life, Richard Ball. After a year of dating and frequenting places like El Rancho Grande and DiOrio’s (Leroy’s) they decided to get married. They have three children, Greg, Shelly, and Deanne. Rich and Linda were married 63 years and have 11 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. They were devoted to one another and showed us by example how to be a loving couple.
Before her children were born, Linda worked for some time at Wooster Community Hospital, but we remember her mostly as a stay-at-home mom raising us kids. We have fond memories of family vacations and beach trips, the Europe tour and Sequoias, canoe trips on Mohican, coloring books and puzzles, special holiday meals, graduations and weddings, cookies, bread pudding, and lemon squares, water fights, canoe fishing expeditions, Holden Beach, the white-water rafting trip, and you conquering “Jump rock!” We always felt your love and support and later cherished seeing you show the same with your grandchildren and great grandkids and all their shenanigans. We will miss your smile, your laugh, and the gleam in your eyes as you watched your family grow.
Linda is survived by her adoring children, Greg (Betsy Goldsberry Ball), Shelly (Dan Head), and Deanne (Rich Gentry), 11 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren. We miss you and love you.
The family would like to thank the staff at Wayne Manor, where Richard and Linda have lived the past few years. Thank you so much for all the love, care and support you have shown our family.
A small private celebration of life will be held in the coming weeks.
McIntire, Bradham & Sleek Funeral Home, 216 E. Larwill St., Wooster is assisting the family.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that memorials be made to Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011.
Online condolences may be left for the family at www.mcintirebradhamsleek.com
I send my condolences to the family for the painful loss that you experienced with Linda‘s struggles with dementia and now with her passing. I appreciate knowing Linda and Richard as their family physician. Cherish your memories.