Linda Dew Garrou

1943 - 2022

Linda Dew Garrou
January 17, 1943 - March 19, 2022
Winston-Salem, North Carolina - Linda Dew Garrou, a woman who lived for others, died suddenly of a stroke on March 19, 2022 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 79.
She is survived by her husband, John; her daughters, Eleanor G. Rubin (Cliff) of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and Margaret Garrou (John Fitzgibbon) of San Francisco, California; four grandchildren, Charlotte and Griffin Rubin and Liam and Emmett Fitzgibbon; her brother, Joe H. Dew (Carol); nieces, Beth Warshauer and Sarah Phillips and families; and nephew, Howard Dew.
Linda, the daughter of Joe C. Dew and Rubye S. Dew, was raised in Columbus, Georgia and attended its public schools. She attended Sullins Junior College and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1964. She received her Masters degree from the University of North Carolina, where she met her future husband.
After their marriage in 1966, she and John moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where they lived thereafter.
Linda spent the seventies raising their two daughters, throwing herself into community volunteer activities and supporting her husband in his career.
As her children matured, Linda yearned to satisfy her hunger for service and accepted a position as administrator of the Juvenile Justice Council, a Winston-Salem organization serving children and youth. Later she became local and then regional director of the North Carolina Guardian Ad Litem program, coordinating volunteers helping to guide and support children through the court system. She was the founding chair of the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute and a member of the Governor's Advocacy Council for Children and Youth.
In 1996, realizing that one of the two Forsyth County members of the North Carolina Senate was likely to be elected unopposed, and because she believed that much could be done to serve North Carolina children better, she decided to run for the office. Like everything Linda undertook, she threw herself completely into the effort, cramming on political tactics, raising campaign funds and relentlessly canvassing, knocking on thousands of doors and talking to anyone who would listen (and some who wouldn't) about her reasons for running. She lost in a very close election, but being the competitor that she was, Linda immediately decided that losing wouldn't quite do, and began planning for a new go in 1998, an election she easily won.
Having never served in any elected position, Linda was "as green as grass" in the words of Senate President Pro Tem, Marc Basnight. Linda was attracted to people and people were attracted to her practical good sense and she began immediately to be appointed to leadership positions, first as Education Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and in 2002, as lead Chair of the Committee, a position she held as long as
her party held the majority. Linda loved her colleagues and she knew where her bread was buttered—but in more than one set of budget negotiations over the years, she said "no" to Senator Basnight when he insisted that his most recent pet project absolutely had to be funded. He usually ranted, and usually relented.
Linda was particularly proud of the help she was able to obtain for the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine; for the establishment of the Center for Design Innovation (a joint project of the UNC School of the Arts, Winston-Salem State University, and Forsyth Technical Community College); and enabling North Carolina residents attending UNCSA for high school to obtain free tuition, putting them on equal footing with other North Carolina high school students.
After her party lost its Senate majority in 2010, Linda determined that it was perhaps time to retire, a decision that was made for her when her seat was made untenable in redistricting in 2012.
After her political career, as she became, in the words of her good friend, Senator Tony Rand, "last year's bird's nest," Linda dived back into community activities, including the Winston-Salem Foundation Committee, which she chaired in 2018 and 2019.
Linda loved well— unconditionally and loyally—her family and her friends. Nothing delighted her more than time with family and bringing her extended family together. Linda was ever and always thoughtful, never forgetting that her blessings were not those of others and sharing herself and her gifts with those around her, whether a powerful political figure or a parking attendant or banquet server. She touched lives— millions of citizens of North Carolina and the bagger at the local grocery store.
A woman of deep and unwavering faith, Linda loved her church, its leaders and its members. In earlier life she served as an Elder of the church and in positions of leadership, but she was always happy to serve as a humble member of any working committee. She just wanted to help.
Never the most patient of women, Linda had the unconscious habit, when she believed that a telephone conversation should end, of interjecting the word "anyway" when beginning sentences—as if to say "anyway, it's time to get off the phone." So, anyway, Linda spent her rich life loving and helping others—her family, her church, her community, and the citizens, especially the children, of North Carolina.
A memorial service will be held at Highland Presbyterian Church, 2380 Cloverdale Avenue, Winston-Salem, at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 24. The family will receive friends following the service at the Church. Masks will be required. Streaming will be available at: https://www.highlandpres.org.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be sent to The Winston-Salem Foundation, 751 W. 4th Street, Ste 200, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27101, and designated to The Women's Fund or the Black Philanthropy Initiative. Condolences may be made online at www.salemfh.com.