Linda and I first met when I was still living in Kansas City. I was a member of the Workforce collective in Kansas City and Lin was a member of Worker Unity Organization here in St. Louis. Both collectives were part of the Federation of Independent Marxist Collectives.
We were dedicated to organizing for a working class revolution so workers could build the power they deserve to have – in society, in politics and governing, in the economy, in the culture. We knew that racism and sexism were the biggest roadblocks to building that type of working class power for all workers, white as well as people of color, men as well as women and cis as well as other gendered, queer, people.
As our daughter, Vanya, has often said to me, you guys have worked so hard and so long. Yet, the problems remain, there seems so far to go to create that revolution. Indeed that is true, but the dedication to other people, especially working class people, especially to overcoming racism and sexism, to speaking truth to power, continued to enable Lin, and hopefully me as well, to be good, caring friends, to many, many people. And good parents, at least most of the time.
Actually, I believe we first met at a conference in Chicago and rode together in a van back to St. Louis, then my group went on to KC. Lin came to visit me in KC a few times, and we had a lot of fun together- in the park near my home in KC and at a lake near Lawrence in Kansas, where Renda, who was about 3 at the time, managed to put a raisin up her nose and we had to rush her to an emergency room.
In 1975, I moved to St. Louis to live with Lin. She was working at Wagner Electric, where her father, John Whitley, had worked for many years. We were living in an old house in Pagedale her father had bought while working at Wagner. I remember good times in that house with the Whitley family. I regularly took Renda up to a nearby playground to swing and slide and all those things little people like to do and parents like to do with them because it makes us feel young. We also went to another slightly larger playground over in U-City that also had a slide and structures to climb on.
I remember watching the St. Louis Cardinals football team on tv, probably with Larry McEwen. Larry and I became good friends and did a lot of fishing together in the rivers and streams around Potosi, where the Whitley family lived.
In 1976, Lin and I bought the home in Ferguson, 419 Georgia, for $21,000. Paddy Quick lived with us and helped pay some of the bills. I had been trying to get a factory job in St. Louis, and in 1976 got hired at Chrysler. Sometime in those years, Lin got hired at Ford. That was the “dream job” for us young socialist revolutionaries – working in an auto plant with the workers who, in Detroit and elsewhere, had built the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. I believe it is still possible to watch the 1970 documentary, “Finally Got the News,” about the League.
In 1977, Linda and I had Vanya, who, as a toddler, we started calling “VaVaVoom” because she was a go-getter. While we were both working, Vanya went to child care after she was about 6 months old at a church in the neighborhood. After I got fired from Chrysler, and Voom was about 1 to 2 years old, Linda took a job working nights at Olin. That must have been after the auto plants did the big layoffs in 1979 or whenever it was. So I became Vanya’s main parent for that period.
Renda was always the big sister doing everything she could to “take care” of her baby sister. I remember lots of play time with them as Vanya was able to walk and get around. I read lots of books to them. We played with the wooden blocks that my grandfather had given me and that eventually went to Milo, those that were left.
I built a garden in the back second lot and I remember playing “Billy goat gruff” with Renda and Vanya on/under the bridge we had put over the creek. We also eventually built a play house and rope swing for them in the back lot behind the garden.
Every year, during the warm months, we spent weekends in the country – either in and around Potosi where the Whitley family was from, or floating and camping on other wonderful Ozark, spring-fed, rivers. Near Potosi we picnicked and swam and floated and fished on the Huzzah and the Courtois Rivers. We also floated the 11 Point River a lot. Sometimes the girls and their cousins, Angie and Rachel, and others went with us, other times I guess they may have stayed in Potosi with Grandma Whitley. Lin always loved to sing and joke and play with her sisters during these float trips – and many other times as well. The family also took the girls swimming at the sandy “beach” on the lake near Park Hills, Missouri, I believe St. Johns’ Park or something like that. After I bought a fishing boat, we also went camping and fishing at Lake Kincaid in Illinois.
In 1983, Linda, Renda, Vanya, and I went to Japan for a week with my sister thanks to my father. We visited many Buddha shrines, Japanese gardens, pearl divers, and Vanya always remembers me eating the legs off a small octopus. She loves octopi and now has a tattoo of one, so maybe she’s trying to make up for me eating that one???
Linda was a fabulous parent to Renda and Vanya, always loving on them and encouraging them. After the divorce, we still collaborated well in taking turns driving Vanya to gifted programs, both kids to summer experiences, and then private school when we decided she should go. Of course, Linda did most of it since Vanya only spent maybe one week each month with me and the Roystons.
My memory isn’t what it used to be but those are some things I remember. I do agree with but have not repeated, many other things Linda’s friends have said on Facebook or elsewhere, such as:
"She loved music and she loved to dance. She loved to walk and go thrift-shopping, always on the lookout for little gifts for her family. But mostly, she loved to be with her family and friends, especially her sisters, telling stories, dancing and laughing."
"She was always upbeat and made you feel like there wasn't anything you couldn't do if you wanted it bad enough."
"She was the most dedicated and loving human. She backed off nothing, showed courage in the face of racism and hatred, she believed in the American dream and loved unions. She was one of a kind."
"I saw Linda as a protector of truth. A Guardian, over looker, as you will of the left out and the forgotten."
