Linda J. Elliott

Linda Joyce Thornsberry Elliott is the author and illustrator of several books, including Pumpkin’s Pilgrimage, Fun In The Park, The High-Back Forty, Who’s Going To Tie Your Shoes?, Billy Bob’s Bean Patch, and Among The Elbows. She is also author of Behold Easter, which features photography by her husband Willie.

She is a graduate of Alice Lloyd College in Knott County, Kentucky, and of Berea College in Madison County, Kentucky. She taught kindergarten and first grade for 27 years. She is now retired and lives in McDowell, Kentucky with Willie. They have one son, Ryan.

Linda is so blessed with many talents and gifts from God. She is a singer-songwriter and has recorded many of her songs. She enjoys playing the guitar and dulcimer. She also dances with a dance team (The Swinging Sensations) and enjoys reading, painting, gardening and many other hobbies and crafts.

Linda was born in Knott County, Kentucky and moved to McDowell, a little town in Floyd County, Kentucky, when she was six years old. At two yeas of age, Linda fell out of a kitchen chair and fractured her spine. In the process of treating her injury, the doctors discovered she had tuberculosis in her spine, her lungs, and her eyes. Tuberculosis was a very scary disease in the late Forties, and for the next 21 years she was in and out of many hospitals. In the first fourteen years of her illness she had several operations on her spine and legs, and had to live in an iron lung machine for some of her young life. She was blind for a time, and after spending so much time in hospital beds, she had to learn to walk all over again at ages 7 and 8. But due to God’s goodness and generosity with His miracles, Linda can now see, sing, walk, and yes, even dance with a dance group. The power, mercy, grace, and love of God in her life is a beautiful thing. Praises to His holy name.