Graveside Services for Linda W. Dean, age 85, of Franklin, Tennessee, and formerly of Martin, will be conducted at Breeding Cemetery on Friday, May 8, 2026 at 1p.m.
Linda passed from this life on May 3, 2026, at her home in Franklin with her daughters by her side and cared for by Angel’s Grace and Alive Hospice.
She was born in Bolivar, Tennessee, on December 22, 1940, the second daughter of the late Gertrude Glockler Loveall and Collins Britt Wesson. Linda graduated from Martin High School. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where her sister, Anita, already lived. There, she met her future husband, William Don Dean, whom she married in April of 1960.
The two began to build a life together on their small farm. The birth of their first daughter, Terri Lee, was followed three years later by a second daughter, Ann Marie. A move for Don’s work brought the family closer to the town of Franklin where he eventually started his own company, Highways Inc. This was the place the family began to build strong community connections that continue to this day. Summers were spent on Dale Hollow Lake with family and friends or in West Tennessee visiting Linda’s mother “TooToo.”
Linda was an accomplished seamstress who made clothes for her daughters and herself. She was keenly attuned to the aesthetic and took great care with the spaces the family lived in, constantly looking for ways to improve it. She studied interior design, and created inviting spaces for people to be in. She would even refinish furniture herself.
She had a very kind, fair way with kids of all ages, assisting with the Girl Scouts and many church and neighborhood activities. The family attended Berry’s Chapel Church of Christ and the fellowship there was a cornerstone of their lives together.
Later she enjoyed her nieces and nephews, then grandchildren and great nieces and nephews immensely. And her granddogs, Ruby and Lily, could do no wrong.
Linda was preceded in death by her beloved husband William Donald Dean, in addition to her parents, Gertrude and Collins, her stepfather Leon Loveall, and her precious father and mother-in-law A.L. (Judge) and Lena Dean.
Linda leaves behind her children, Lee Dean (husband Albert McFarland), Ann Marie White (husband Paul Frysh), her grandchildren Will White, Max White, and Emily Dean McFarland, her sister Anita Pollock, as well as her nieces and nephews, Barbara Goodwin, Steve Gallagher, Mark Gallagher, Susan Pitts, Adam Pollack, Britt Pollack, and Mary Catherine Glassford, their spouses, children and extended family.
Graveside Services for Linda W. Dean, age 85, of Franklin, Tennessee, and formerly of Martin, will be conducted at Breeding Cemetery on Friday, May 8, 2026 at 1p.m.
Linda passed from this life on May 3, 2026, at her home in Franklin with her daughters by her side and cared for by Angel’s Grace and Alive Hospice.
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This obituary was published by Speck Funeral Home.
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