Linda Jo Zaconick Totty

Linda Jo Zaconick Totty died peacefully on the afternoon of March 4, 2020, in Larkspur, CA, surrounded by her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. She was 74.

A Jew, she was born on April 10, 1945, in Hollywood, Florida, the first day that news of the German death camps broke across America. Her parents, the late Harold and Natalie Zaconick, raised her in several locations on the Eastern seaboard, including Atlantic City, NJ, and Catskill, NY. She was an Education School graduate of Syracuse University in 1965 and worked for several years in Syracuse as a social worker. In 1969 she arrived for a short visit to Berkeley, CA, and never went back. The Bay Area’s moderate summer temperatures and lack of heavily armored mosquitoes were too attractive for her to leave.

She met her future husband when mutual friends in Berkeley invited them over to watch the Audrey Hepburn movie “Two for the Road.” Several cross-country car and plane trips, and daily life together in Berkeley cemented their bond.

They moved to the Southland in 1973 to work on career goals, and married in 1974 in Monterey Park, CA. Linda began a temporary job with the U.S. Social Security Administration, a gig that later morphed into a 30-year career with the agency as a space planner, charged with managing and smoothing interactions between builders, unions, landlords, and government bureaucrats.

The couple returned to the Bay Area in 1978 and lived in Larkspur since then. She was preceded in death by her parents, Harold and Natalie (1994), and older sister, Diane (2015).

Linda is survived by her husband of 45 years, Patrick; son, Sam, and his wife, Monica; a niece and nephew, Sonja Wang (Oahu) and Noah Feit (Columbia, SC); and two brothersin-law, William Totty (Los Angeles) and Michael Totty (Glendora).

Linda’s favorite charity was St. Jude. Donations made in her name would be greatly appreciated.

A private memorial service has been planned for a later date.