Coyle, Linda Donnally
Linda Donnally Coyle, a loved mother, grandmother and friend to all, passed peacefully on Saturday, April 4, 2026, after courageously enduring the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She was 91 years old.
Born on August 22, 1934, in Charleston, West Virginia to Wirt and Dorothy Donnally, Linda came from a family whose roots reach back to the original founders of the Kanawha Valley. She carried that heritage with quiet pride throughout her life. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Hollins College in Virginia.
In February of 1958, Linda married James T. Coyle, and together they built a home and raised their family in the South Hills neighborhood of Charleston. When the family’s retail business was sold in 1972, Jim and Linda made their way to Vienna, Virginia. In
1977, they found a farm in Childress, Virginia, near Radford, where they spent the rest of their lives rooted in the outdoors that they loved.
Long before that farm became home, Linda had been a passionate advocate for the environment. In West Virginia, she was active in drafting legislation to regulate the mining industry’s impact on slopes and waterways, working to protect the rivers and landscapes. That commitment never wavered. On her farm, she was passionate about establishing new wildlife habitats and protecting the natural order of her surroundings. She tended the land with the same care and intention she brought to everything she loved. Whether in the halls of government or on her own acres, Linda lived by the belief that the natural world was something to be honored, protected, and passed on to those who would come after.
That love of nature was woven into every corner of her daily life. Linda’s flower gardens were her trademark — natural beds that seemed to burst with life and color in every season, a reflection of the beauty she saw in the world and worked so hard to preserve. Linda was a gifted artist. Her passion and expression of the outdoors carried through in her paintings.
She was equally at home on the trail, on the water, or in the saddle. An avid equestrian, Linda enjoyed riding horses for most of her life. Her bond with animals spoke to the same deep connection she had with the earth and all walks of life. For many years she joined close friends on canoe trips that became cherished traditions, and she never tired of a good hike through the landscapes she worked so hard to protect. Hiking, riding, paddling, gardening, painting, tending the land — for Linda, these were not hobbies so much as a way of being. Linda was an elder in the Radford Presbyterian church. Her devotion to the church family was more demonstrated than stated. She was always involved in ways that offered a hand-up to those in need.
In everything she did, she found a way to make the wonders of the world visible to all who might otherwise pass it by.
In an age of excess, Linda showed her family and all who knew her that a life well-lived means doing more with less — and finding abundance in simplicity.
Linda is survived by her four children: James Coyle, Jr. and his wife Cheryl, Edwin (Ted) Coyle and his wife Katharine, Mary Coyle Evans and her husband Jack, and John Coyle; and her eight grandchildren: Evan, William, Elliott, Courtney, Davis, Morgan, Annabel, and Henry. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jim.
A special heartfelt thanks to all the amazing caregivers who helped enormously in keeping her comfortable and being her friend. We would have been lost without you.
The family will hold a memorial service later this summer at Radford Presbyterian Church, and Linda will be laid to rest in the family grave plot in Charleston, West Virginia.
She will be remembered not only for the land she loved, but for the love she leaves behind.
