Upon retirement from a lengthy and honorable military service career, Linda’s father accepted an air traffic controller’s position at Charleston West Virginia’s Yeager Airport and moved his young family to the Kanawha Valley. Over the years, as the rest of her family eventually moved to other states, Linda, who had grown to love the beauty of the mountains and the diversity of the people, chose to remain in West Virginia and make it her permanent home.

She earned a business degree from West Virginia State College, later married and decided to raise her own family on a rural portion of West Virginia farmland. She has been employed in a variety of administrative assistant positions over the last 25 years. Her experience includes working within a law department, for a heavy equipment company, a bridge building company, as a purchasing agent, and most recently working as an administrative assistant for one of the leading thoroughbred equine sales companies in Lexington, Kentucky. In addition, Linda has worked as a tax associate with H & R Block for the past 11 years and was an active participant in the Advantage Valley, Entrepreneurial League (ELS) System.

Linda’s children are grown now, working on lives and careers of their own, while blessing her with three beautiful granddaughters. She and her husband T.J. currently live in rural Putnam County on a 70 acre farm. They raise alpacas for sale and for fiber production. Their menagerie includes: two horses, a donkey, two energetic brindle boxers, and a very domineering calico cat.

As the newly appointed Vice President of Production at Appalachian Milk Soap, LLC, Linda was immediately charged with the task of working with Donna Cunningham, founder of the original recipes, to devise a way of manufacturing greater quantities of the soap without compromising the original recipes. Maintaining the integrety of the recipes was, and always will be, paramount at Appalachian Milk Soap.

This was a challenging task, but in order for the company to grow into the future, it was critical that it be accomplished. After many grueling days, numerous batches of soap poured, trials and errors, quantity calculations, temperature checks, etc., they finally succeeded!

This major accomplishment has now enabled Appalachian Milk Soap to maintain it’s most cherished asset (the recipe), while producing greater quantities of soaps, opening up new and broader markets and helping to insure consistant availablility of the product for our customers.

Linda’s commitment is based on the very things she holds dear; the philosophy of producing only the very best in quality products, working within a family atmosphere, working with others of high integrity, and working in an organization based on sound business principles.