She was born March 12, 1955 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Linda grew up in the Deep South to a family of four daughters and was raised by a black housekeeper, just as the civil rights movement was stirring racial turmoil.

Growing up in Louisiana’s bayou country, Linda attended private Catholic school from elementary through high school and graduated from Louisiana State University in 1977.  

An experienced dancer with a desire to see the world, Linda joined the international educational and cultural program, Up with People in 1978, spending four years on the road performing and serving as a dance captain in concert halls across the United States and around the world including Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Bermuda, Mexico and Argentina. She and her husband also traveled on the road as cast directors. 

This global perspective, and the opportunity to live with hundreds of host families from every imaginable dynamic, provided Linda with a unique understanding of the world as well as her life growing up in the South.

In 1982, Linda married Bruce L. Erley, a Yankee from Connecticut and they set up home in the desert community of Tucson, Arizona. After years as a certified fitness instructor, Linda became a stay-at-home mom upon the birth of her first son, Christopher in 1985. Within four years, Bruce and Linda added two more sons, Matthew and Patrick to the family. Today, they enjoy spending time with their three grown sons, three beautiful daughters-in-law and seven precious grandchildren who are the joys of their life.

Raising her sons was Linda’s calling. She immersed herself in their upbringing, supporting their teachers and schools and along with Bruce exposing them to a broad variety of activities and experiences. Through those years she also led numerous bible studies and hosted retreats.

As Linda and Bruce became empty nesters they self-published a children's book about raising their three sons. The Three Little Tugs, Tales from Safe Harbor, is a story of a lighthouse who looked over her three little tugs that eventually grew into tall ships with the courage to leave their safe harbor to explore the world.

Throughout her life, Linda received advice and encouragement from the same loving woman who had taken Linda into her arms when she was born.  

Lillie Mae Lee worked for the Lowe family for three generations, and on the many trips back home to Louisiana, cared for Linda’s children with the same love as she did raising Linda. Lille became family.

Linda has also dedicated her life to serving others. She has been a leader in Bible Study Fellowship and taught other biblical studies within her church, a therapy team with her Portuguese Water Dog, Matilda (Tilly) at local hospitals and recovery centers, a teacher’s aide, and a devoted caregiver to sick and dying family and friends. 

Further, Linda used her “Southern hospitality” in managing the family’s mountain cabin in the Colorado Rockies as a Super Host on Airbnb and VRBO.

During the final years of Lille Mae Lee’s life, Linda and her younger sister, Letti, served as her caregiver and advocate. The intimacy of that experience provided Linda with the inspiration to tell the story of this remarkable woman who raised her while silently confronting the yoke of Jim Crow in her life.

Since Lillie’s death in 2019, Linda has devoted herself to writing Rainbow Over the Bayou – Jim Crow Through the Eyes of a White Girl, a historical fiction inspired by the life and times of her “second mother.” It is her hope that this book sheds greater insight to those struggles and inequities as well as the redemptive grace, hope and love of God.