YATES CENTER — Even over the phone Linda Suddarth came across as sweet as the breads for which she is famous.
“I’m answering your ad for sourdough starter,” she said. “My recipe makes the best dinner rolls and cinnamon buns. I’d be happy to share it with you.”
Her sourdough bread entry won her grand champion at the Woodson County Fair two years ago, the same year she and husband Bill were named its grand marshals.
To her grandchildren, Linda’s sourdough bread is simply known as “Grandma’s bread,” and it’s “almost” the first thing they look for when she pays a visit.
In town, Linda’s rolls are a staple at church, the senior center, bingo, and local benefits.
IN THESE PARTS, Linda and Bill’s story may not be so unique, but with each passing generation it becomes more so.
Both were raised on farms and learned at an early age adult responsibilities.
As a child, Linda’s family “lost everything,” in the 1951 flood and they picked up and moved from Turner to Wellsville.
“I can remember the water was up to the roof of our two-story home,” she said.
In high school she took on work at an insurance company in addition to helping on the family farm.
“I learned to cook from my mom. We raised practically everything we ate. She made her own cottage cheese. She canned, baked, and sewed.”
A generation later, Linda, 70, continues in much the same way. In an expansive garden outside their modest home Linda will tend to her tomatoes, onions, peas, peppers, squash and beans.
“We have six lots,” Bill said, a tad sheepishly. Like most green-thumbers, they are eager for spring.
Over a chair in the living room is draped the makings of a quilt Linda gets to in quiet times.
For Bill, now 80, life took on urgency when his father, George Bruce Suddarth, lost a hand in a corn-picker.
