Mary Lintner’s family says she was all about unconditional love and support.
“She always saw the good in people. I could be a serial killer, and she’d be the one saying, ‘Well, there must have been a good reason for her to hack those people to pieces,” said her granddaughter, Amber Shelton, 33, formerly of House Springs. “She never questioned, never criticized. She was just there for you.”
Mary K. “Kathy” Lintner died June 16 at age 80 of complications from several health conditions. Her varied life experience included stints as a homemaker, a cosmetologist, a welder and a nanny.
Mrs. Lintner was born in Nashville, Tenn., and grew up in St. Louis.
“My great-grandma owned a restaurant, and my grandma worked there as a waitress,” Amber said. “That’s where she met my biological grandfather, Chester Grimes. They eloped when she was just 15 of 16.”
The couple had five children. When their youngest was still small, they lost two teenage sons in a period of two years, one by drowning and another from a rare liver disease.
“The three boys were all two years apart in age,” Amber said. “My uncle Chester was 14 when the first one died and 16 when the other one died. He always thought, growing up, that he would die, too, when he turned 18. It took him a long time to get over that.”
The marriage did not survive the tragedies, and the couple separated in the late 1960s.
Mrs. Lintner, a single mother with a child still at home, did the logical thing: She became a welder.
“Well, I guess maybe it was a little unusual,” Amber said with a laugh. “But that was Grandma. She was the kind of person who would get an idea and just do it.
“I think she knew someone who did it for a living, and it was good money. So she went to school to be a welder.”
After several years, Mrs. Lintner moved to Nashville to be near her sister and to help take care of family members. It was there she went to cosmetology school.
“She would always use us as her guinea pigs,” Amber said. “She’d say, ‘Oh, curly hair is
cute!’ as she was giving us an awful perm. But you did what Grandma said. She was
hilarious.”
In the early 1980s, Amber said, her grandmother met Dale Lintner, and the two would be happily married for more than 30 years. They settled in House Springs and Mrs. Lintner became a dedicated homemaker, focusing most of her time on her family.
“She really kind of raised most of her grandchildren, and also some of her nieces and nephews,” Amber said. “She took care of everybody. She has always been like a den mother. My mom worked, and Grandma was like a second mom to me and my sisters.”
When Dale retired, the Lintners moved farther south.
“They bought 19 acres of land in Cadet,” Amber said. “My grandpa wanted land so he could hunt.”
Amber said she and her siblings and cousins have many fond memories of time spent with their grandparents.
“They would take us hunting blackberries,” she said. “They fished all the time, and there are so many pictures of us kids fishing with them.”
Mrs. Lintner’s loving care expanded into a fourth generation.
“My children have gotten to spend a lot of time with her,” Amber said. “My sons were just about inseparable with her. I’m really lucky that they have gotten to have that relationship with a great-grandparent.”
Mrs. Lintner had been having increasing health problems in recent years.
“She had congestive heart failure, COPD, problems with her heart,” Amber said. “She just gradually got sicker and sicker.”
As her health declined, her faith became ever more important.
“In recent times she got even closer to God,” Amber said. “She loved going to church, loved singing.
“She had been in the hospital about a month and had to go to rehab. They had services on Sundays, and the preacher jokingly asked her, ‘Do you want to get up here and help me?’ He would be talking and she would finish the verse from the Bible.
“She never lost her faith. I don’t know how, with all the tragedy she had in her life.”
Mrs. Lintner’s living will specified that she not be kept alive by extraordinary means.
“Her little body was so worn out,” Amber said “We all knew she wasn’t afraid to die. She felt that God had a plan for her, and if it was her time to go, don’t use a machine to keep her away from God.”
It appeared that Mrs. Lintner stayed on for a family milestone, though.
“My sister, Meghan, who was her youngest grandchild, always told her ‘You can’t die until I have kids!’” Amber said. “And my grandma died two months after Meghan’s son, Presley, was born.”
Amber said the family will miss her grandmother’s spirit.
“One time my sister and I got into a fight, and grandma came into the hall waving a
frying pan and saying, ‘I’m gonna whoop you with this!’ Amber said. “We both just stopped and busted up laughing.
“She was just the most amazing person. We all felt so lucky having her in our lives.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.