Texas farm girl became matriarch of Anaheim clan - Linda Queyrel raised three children and presided over a ranch house surrounded by acres of orange groves.
In the days when orange groves were plentiful and orange cars unheard of; when women wore housedresses in the morning, then changed into something nicer when their husbands came home; and when homemakers ironed their sheets and their aprons, Linda Queyrel was a young Anaheim wife and mother.
She ironed her housedresses, too, and wore a clean one every day. She presided over a large, comfortable Gilbert Street ranch house, raised chickens and reared three children while her husband, Joachim, tended their 23 acres of orange groves.
The house, already 20 years old when they bought it in 1927, has a large kitchen for preparing huge family meals, and once had a welcoming front porch on which to relax after dinner. They later closed in the porch to expand the living room.
Linda watched their land shrink to a half-acre of fruit and avocado trees. She saw two acres become the beginnings of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway - or at least the 1938 version of a major thoroughfare. She watched roadways and houses spring up where Joachim once disappeared deep into the fragrant groves to irrigate his trees.
She lived in that house until one month before she died Sunday at age 98.
It was a warm house - the kind in which you felt comfortable the minute you passed through the wood-frame screen door. It was the headquarters for all family gatherings. Linda wouldn't let the relatives bring so much as a casserole. She wanted to do it all herself, sometimes cooking days in advance.
Linda was the undisputed matriarch of the family. Her children say her marriage paired a dominant German (Linda) with a gentle Frenchman. Joachim never argued with her right to rule.
She walked softly, though, and didn't even carry a big stick.
She simply liked to be the one in control. And she was.
Born Linda Haas, she grew up on a farm in Braunsfeld, Texas. She was 20 when a California relative came to visit the family in Texas. As he was leaving California, his friend, Joachim Queyrel, who owned a bakery in Placentia, told him, half-joking, "Bring me back a wife."
So the relative brought him Linda.
It wasn't love at first sight, but she did go to work in the bakery. And a year later - in 1920 - they were married. They honeymooned on Catalina Island.
It was a peaceful life.
Linda was active in her children's school PTAs, and had a circle of friends with whom she played cards and exchanged craft ideas.
She was quite the poker-faced card player, equally good at pinochle and poker. She and Joachim hosted many card parties at their house.
She also hosted monthly meetings of her crafts club. The ladies brought their little bag lunches and their much larger bags of crafts, and turned Linda's living room into a humming hive of gossip, glue and sequins.
Everyone in Linda's family is enjoying Linda's crafts, which went far beyond crocheting a cute border around a grocery-list pad.
She made stunning Christmas tree ornaments, ornate sequined and appliqued Christmas stockings, decorative items to hang in the kitchen or set on the coffee table. Her work table in the den was an organized jumble of ribbons and markers, glue and fabric. She hooked rugs and worked with crushed glass, and was always on the lookout for new ideas.
Joachim died in 1977 at age 90, and their son, Dennis - the baby of the family - in 1991 at age 65. Dennis' death was a devastating loss to Linda. She never really got over it.
But she kept her sense of humor, clipping out or jotting down amusing sayings that she kept on the table by her comfortable chair in the den.
These were things that represented her philosophy of life, such as, "Love many, trust few, and paddle your own canoe."
LINDA QUEYREL
Born: Dec. 14, 1899, Braunsfeld, Texas
Died: Oct. 4, 1998, Anaheim
Survivors: daughter, Lorraine Kelly; son, Calvin; sister, Ella Brown; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren
Services: Backs-Kaulbars Baggott & Schacht Anaheim Mortuary
In the days when orange groves were plentiful and orange cars unheard of; when women wore housedresses in the morning, then changed into something nicer when their husbands came home; and when homemakers ironed their sheets and their aprons, Linda Queyrel was a young Anaheim wife and mother.
She ironed her housedresses, too, and wore a clean one every day. She presided over a large, comfortable Gilbert Street ranch house, raised chickens and reared three children while her husband, Joachim, tended their 23 acres of orange groves.
The house, already 20 years old when they bought it in 1927, has a large kitchen for preparing huge family meals, and once had a welcoming front porch on which to relax after dinner. They later closed in the porch to expand the living room.
Linda watched their land shrink to a half-acre of fruit and avocado trees. She saw two acres become the beginnings of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway - or at least the 1938 version of a major thoroughfare. She watched roadways and houses spring up where Joachim once disappeared deep into the fragrant groves to irrigate his trees.
She lived in that house until one month before she died Sunday at age 98.
It was a warm house - the kind in which you felt comfortable the minute you passed through the wood-frame screen door. It was the headquarters for all family gatherings. Linda wouldn't let the relatives bring so much as a casserole. She wanted to do it all herself, sometimes cooking days in advance.
Linda was the undisputed matriarch of the family. Her children say her marriage paired a dominant German (Linda) with a gentle Frenchman. Joachim never argued with her right to rule.
She walked softly, though, and didn't even carry a big stick.
She simply liked to be the one in control. And she was.
Born Linda Haas, she grew up on a farm in Braunsfeld, Texas. She was 20 when a California relative came to visit the family in Texas. As he was leaving California, his friend, Joachim Queyrel, who owned a bakery in Placentia, told him, half-joking, "Bring me back a wife."
So the relative brought him Linda.
It wasn't love at first sight, but she did go to work in the bakery. And a year later - in 1920 - they were married. They honeymooned on Catalina Island.
It was a peaceful life.
Linda was active in her children's school PTAs, and had a circle of friends with whom she played cards and exchanged craft ideas.
She was quite the poker-faced card player, equally good at pinochle and poker. She and Joachim hosted many card parties at their house.
She also hosted monthly meetings of her crafts club. The ladies brought their little bag lunches and their much larger bags of crafts, and turned Linda's living room into a humming hive of gossip, glue and sequins.
Everyone in Linda's family is enjoying Linda's crafts, which went far beyond crocheting a cute border around a grocery-list pad.
She made stunning Christmas tree ornaments, ornate sequined and appliqued Christmas stockings, decorative items to hang in the kitchen or set on the coffee table. Her work table in the den was an organized jumble of ribbons and markers, glue and fabric. She hooked rugs and worked with crushed glass, and was always on the lookout for new ideas.
Joachim died in 1977 at age 90, and their son, Dennis - the baby of the family - in 1991 at age 65. Dennis' death was a devastating loss to Linda. She never really got over it.
But she kept her sense of humor, clipping out or jotting down amusing sayings that she kept on the table by her comfortable chair in the den.
These were things that represented her philosophy of life, such as, "Love many, trust few, and paddle your own canoe."
LINDA QUEYREL
Born: Dec. 14, 1899, Braunsfeld, Texas
Died: Oct. 4, 1998, Anaheim
Survivors: daughter, Lorraine Kelly; son, Calvin; sister, Ella Brown; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren
Services: Backs-Kaulbars Baggott & Schacht Anaheim Mortuary
Texas farm girl became matriarch of Anaheim clan - Linda Queyrel raised three children and presided over a ranch house surrounded by acres of orange groves.
In the days when orange groves were plentiful and orange cars unheard of; when women wore housedresses in the morning, then changed into something nicer when their husbands came home; and when homemakers ironed their sheets and their aprons, Linda Queyrel was a young Anaheim wife and mother.
She ironed her housedresses, too, and wore a clean one every day. She presided over a large, comfortable Gilbert Street ranch house, raised chickens and reared three children while her husband, Joachim, tended their 23 acres of orange groves.
The house, already 20 years old when they bought it in 1927, has a large kitchen for preparing huge family meals, and once had a welcoming front porch on which to relax after dinner. They later closed in the porch to expand the living room.
Linda watched their land shrink to a half-acre of fruit and avocado trees. She saw two acres become the beginnings of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway - or at least the 1938 version of a major thoroughfare. She watched roadways and houses spring up where Joachim once disappeared deep into the fragrant groves to irrigate his trees.
She lived in that house until one month before she died Sunday at age 98.
It was a warm house - the kind in which you felt comfortable the minute you passed through the wood-frame screen door. It was the headquarters for all family gatherings. Linda wouldn't let the relatives bring so much as a casserole. She wanted to do it all herself, sometimes cooking days in advance.
Linda was the undisputed matriarch of the family. Her children say her marriage paired a dominant German (Linda) with a gentle Frenchman. Joachim never argued with her right to rule.
She walked softly, though, and didn't even carry a big stick.
She simply liked to be the one in control. And she was.
Born Linda Haas, she grew up on a farm in Braunsfeld, Texas. She was 20 when a California relative came to visit the family in Texas. As he was leaving California, his friend, Joachim Queyrel, who owned a bakery in Placentia, told him, half-joking, "Bring me back a wife."
So the relative brought him Linda.
It wasn't love at first sight, but she did go to work in the bakery. And a year later - in 1920 - they were married. They honeymooned on Catalina Island.
It was a peaceful life.
Linda was active in her children's school PTAs, and had a circle of friends with whom she played cards and exchanged craft ideas.
She was quite the poker-faced card player, equally good at pinochle and poker. She and Joachim hosted many card parties at their house.
She also hosted monthly meetings of her crafts club. The ladies brought their little bag lunches and their much larger bags of crafts, and turned Linda's living room into a humming hive of gossip, glue and sequins.
Everyone in Linda's family is enjoying Linda's crafts, which went far beyond crocheting a cute border around a grocery-list pad.
She made stunning Christmas tree ornaments, ornate sequined and appliqued Christmas stockings, decorative items to hang in the kitchen or set on the coffee table. Her work table in the den was an organized jumble of ribbons and markers, glue and fabric. She hooked rugs and worked with crushed glass, and was always on the lookout for new ideas.
Joachim died in 1977 at age 90, and their son, Dennis - the baby of the family - in 1991 at age 65. Dennis' death was a devastating loss to Linda. She never really got over it.
But she kept her sense of humor, clipping out or jotting down amusing sayings that she kept on the table by her comfortable chair in the den.
These were things that represented her philosophy of life, such as, "Love many, trust few, and paddle your own canoe."
LINDA QUEYREL
Born: Dec. 14, 1899, Braunsfeld, Texas
Died: Oct. 4, 1998, Anaheim
Survivors: daughter, Lorraine Kelly; son, Calvin; sister, Ella Brown; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren
Services: Backs-Kaulbars Baggott & Schacht Anaheim Mortuary
In the days when orange groves were plentiful and orange cars unheard of; when women wore housedresses in the morning, then changed into something nicer when their husbands came home; and when homemakers ironed their sheets and their aprons, Linda Queyrel was a young Anaheim wife and mother.
She ironed her housedresses, too, and wore a clean one every day. She presided over a large, comfortable Gilbert Street ranch house, raised chickens and reared three children while her husband, Joachim, tended their 23 acres of orange groves.
The house, already 20 years old when they bought it in 1927, has a large kitchen for preparing huge family meals, and once had a welcoming front porch on which to relax after dinner. They later closed in the porch to expand the living room.
Linda watched their land shrink to a half-acre of fruit and avocado trees. She saw two acres become the beginnings of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway - or at least the 1938 version of a major thoroughfare. She watched roadways and houses spring up where Joachim once disappeared deep into the fragrant groves to irrigate his trees.
She lived in that house until one month before she died Sunday at age 98.
It was a warm house - the kind in which you felt comfortable the minute you passed through the wood-frame screen door. It was the headquarters for all family gatherings. Linda wouldn't let the relatives bring so much as a casserole. She wanted to do it all herself, sometimes cooking days in advance.
Linda was the undisputed matriarch of the family. Her children say her marriage paired a dominant German (Linda) with a gentle Frenchman. Joachim never argued with her right to rule.
She walked softly, though, and didn't even carry a big stick.
She simply liked to be the one in control. And she was.
Born Linda Haas, she grew up on a farm in Braunsfeld, Texas. She was 20 when a California relative came to visit the family in Texas. As he was leaving California, his friend, Joachim Queyrel, who owned a bakery in Placentia, told him, half-joking, "Bring me back a wife."
So the relative brought him Linda.
It wasn't love at first sight, but she did go to work in the bakery. And a year later - in 1920 - they were married. They honeymooned on Catalina Island.
It was a peaceful life.
Linda was active in her children's school PTAs, and had a circle of friends with whom she played cards and exchanged craft ideas.
She was quite the poker-faced card player, equally good at pinochle and poker. She and Joachim hosted many card parties at their house.
She also hosted monthly meetings of her crafts club. The ladies brought their little bag lunches and their much larger bags of crafts, and turned Linda's living room into a humming hive of gossip, glue and sequins.
Everyone in Linda's family is enjoying Linda's crafts, which went far beyond crocheting a cute border around a grocery-list pad.
She made stunning Christmas tree ornaments, ornate sequined and appliqued Christmas stockings, decorative items to hang in the kitchen or set on the coffee table. Her work table in the den was an organized jumble of ribbons and markers, glue and fabric. She hooked rugs and worked with crushed glass, and was always on the lookout for new ideas.
Joachim died in 1977 at age 90, and their son, Dennis - the baby of the family - in 1991 at age 65. Dennis' death was a devastating loss to Linda. She never really got over it.
But she kept her sense of humor, clipping out or jotting down amusing sayings that she kept on the table by her comfortable chair in the den.
These were things that represented her philosophy of life, such as, "Love many, trust few, and paddle your own canoe."
LINDA QUEYREL
Born: Dec. 14, 1899, Braunsfeld, Texas
Died: Oct. 4, 1998, Anaheim
Survivors: daughter, Lorraine Kelly; son, Calvin; sister, Ella Brown; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren
Services: Backs-Kaulbars Baggott & Schacht Anaheim Mortuary
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