Linda Lou Modrell (Buchanan) passed Nov. 7, 2025, in Albany, Oregon, aged 82.
She was born a fourth-generation Oregonian to William Graham and Betty Jane Buchanan (Livingston) on Jan. 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 as a single mother, she attended Linn-Benton Community College. Later in life, she attended Oregon State University completing a bachelor’s 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 4-H department and entomology then for the extension service, all at Oregon State University. In the early 1990s, 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 2014. 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 Lalanne 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, winemaking, 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 freestanding 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 7, 2026, from 1-4 p.m.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Corvallis Arts Center.
I’ve known Linda since high school days when we would double date with my current girlfriend and her boyfriend of the time. After I married my current wife of 65 years (Linda Marie) she had married; we had family get togethers occasionally and I maintained a deep respect for her and her talent. We eventually became colleagues at OSU and maintained contact as friends, colleagues, and because of her position as county commissioner, and my family farm connection in Benton County. My wife and I last saw her at the nursing home where she was staying and she still recognized me. I will miss her.