34 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} handle it,” Linda says. By assisting the reporters and witnessing their conversations with that old editor, she learned what it meant to be a journalist. “The cool thing about journalism is that I have met so many interesting people,” she says. After college, Linda stayed in Southern California, eventually leaving the LA Times for Modern Maturity (now called AARP The Magazine). When Chris got a job offer from San Francisco Examiner publisher Will Hearst in 1990, Linda says she jumped at the chance to move back to the Peninsula. “I was happy to be home.” The publisher of the Palo Alto-based Peninsula Times Tribune—a former boss and friend from the LA Times—offered Linda a job heading up the marketing many accomplishments, and equally warmly about her second husband, Dennis Nugent, and the life they’ve built together. Dennis is one of Linda’s many connections from her Menlo Park school days. The two shared mutual friends from elementary school and got to know each other while at Menlo-Atherton. After reconnecting decades later, they proudly display photos of their blended family in their cozy home. As for what’s next for InMenlo? More of the same, as far as Linda is concerned. She has no plans to retire from this labor of love. “InMenlo evolves along with the people who contribute to it,” Linda says, admitting that “It feels good to give something back to the community.” Especially a community that she clearly adores. department. It was her first foray into the business side of news, and led to roles with a string of small marketing companies after the struggling newspaper finally folded in 1993. When InMenlo turned 12 in 2021, the Menlo Park City Council took notice, issuing a proclamation declaring Linda a beloved local institution “as an ever-present and studious chronicler of the community.” It lauded her many roles, including editor, reporter and occasional photographer, and praised her “commitment to providing a reliable, impartial and detailed news source during a period when many communities have experienced the demise of local news sources.” InMenlo is studiously apolitical— not for lack of interest in local politics, Linda says, but because she doesn’t have the resources to cover it properly. Linda has a tendency to deflect attention from herself by talking warmly about her late husband’s neighborly news inmenlo.com “Linda has been a great supporter. I can always tell when she’s released a story about my bird or owl photography, because I start getting multiple hits on my website, inthewildwithrick.com.” — RICK MORRIS, WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER AND INMENLO CONTRIBUTOR ABOVE: Linda meets with restaurateur Jesse Cool at Flea Street Cafe in Menlo Park.
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