Linda Modrell Obituary

Linda Lou Modrell (Buchanan) passed November 8th in Albany Oregon aged 82.

She was born a fourth generation Oregonian to Willam Graham and Betty Jane Buchanan (Livingston) on January 13, 1943 in Eugene, Oregon. Her father passed in 1949 and the family moved to Albany, Oregon where Betty met and married Jess Willard Clough. Linda graduated from Albany Union High School (West Albany) where she was noticed as gifted by her science teachers and ran for student body president her senior year against a competitive field of four boys and one girl. She married after graduating high school and had two boys. After they had grown a bit and while working and a single mother she attended Linn-Benton Community College. Later in life she attended Oregon State University completing a Bachelors and then Master's degree.

Linda was constantly self-improving and had a deep abiding love for her homeland of Linn and Benton counties and her familial connection to it. She worked for the 4H department and Entomology then for the Extension service, all at Oregon State University. In the early 1990's Linda worked on the Oregon State Health Services Commission for the Prioritization of Health Services in the state effort devoted to providing maximum medical benefit for each dollar spent. At age 53 in 1996 she won election to a Benton county commissioner position and was reelected three more times, until retirement, after her fourth term in 2013. She enjoyed this role; it was not a job to her. She always stressed that her responsibility was to make the best and most effective decisions for the community as a whole, providing a fair deal for residents while avoiding political biases and influence. Linda applied the ethos of self-improvement for the county to her governing responsibilities. She concerned herself with water supply, open space preservation, local small business support, transportation infrastructure, managing population growth, timber management, farming, education, health services; all of the issues affecting the quality of life for residents, generational and recent. Linda enjoyed gatherings and human endeavor; she delighted in learning about and from other people. A voracious and wide-ranging reader, Linda would have to practice occasional abstinence because once she started a book she couldn't put it down until finished. She loved movies from the 1930s to the 1960s, television serials Dark Shadows and the Avengers, Jack Lalane and Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet), actors Margaret Rutherford and Gilbert Roland. Linda was drawn to genealogical pursuits by the lure of the interesting characters in her ancestry. She dabbled in experimental cooking, wine-making, pottery (in the Art Center basement) and landscape art. Linda very much enjoyed local artists and their efforts. Painting, sculpture, glassworks, mobiles, in various media; cloth, paper, glass, metal both traditional and avant-garde are represented in a free standing four-story tower she had custom-built on her property. She is survived by a sister, two brothers, a bereaved partner, two sons, two granddaughters and a grandson. A memorial service will be held at the Corvallis Arts Center, on March 7th 2026 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Donations in her memory may be made to the Corvallis Arts Center.

The Benton County Commisioners Office has a very nice memorial on their website: https://boc.bentoncountyor.gov/benton-county-honors-contributions-of-former-commissioner-linda-modrell/.