Mrs. Linda Carol Shackelford

Linda Carol Shackelford passed away peacefully on May 10, 2025 in Dayton, MD. She was 75 years of age. Linda is survived by her loving husband Willard (Skip) Shackelford, Jr.; her son and daughter-in-law Trey and Starlynn; her daughter Mindy (Maurice); her grandchildren Colin, Julia (Doug), Andrew, and Trinity; her sisters Deborah (Jim) Belcher and Karen Lopez, her brother Scott (Jennifer) Spangler, and her sister-in-laws Carol Spangler and Gail (William) Daiger, along with a myriad of nieces, nephews, and cousins who loved her very much. Linda was pre-deceased by her grandson Zachary Shackelford, mother Blanche Spangler, and brother William (Jack) Spangler. Born in Hampden, MD (Baltimore City) on November 22, 1949. Linda was raised by her mother, Blanche Elaine Spangler (Bortle) with her four other siblings (Jack, Deb, Karen and Scott). Linda was extremely hard working, loyal, artistic, not afraid to stand up for herself and for the ones she loved. Equal was her love, and passion for animals, and an elite sense of humor with a touch of “Bortle” orneriness. Linda graduated from Mergenthaler (Mervo) High School in 1967 where she studied business as well as art in mediums of pencil, oil paints, chalk and performative art. During this time in high school, she and three of her close female friends formed a Beatles themed Capella quartet that performed around town at public venues to have fun and satisfy her passion for art. Though a budding artist at the time, she always had a passion for animals especially for horses, dogs and birds. In Hampden of 1962, Linda met Skip Shackelford walking through a cold snowstorm on Chestnut Avenue where they happened to cross paths along their walk. From that point on, they were inseparable. Linda was either found racing around downtown Baltimore in one of Skip’s hotrods or Linda dragging Skip to a horse farm to rent horses for long trail rides. On May 16th of 1970, the two were married before their family and friends at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Baltimore City. From there they lived in an apartment until they could afford their first house off Westfield Avenue in Hamilton, MD. Linda soon had two children, Trey and Mindy, where she raised them with immense love, dedication and a passion for creativity. Linda was not only a wonderfully dedicated mother, but a beautifully talented teacher and mentor as well. She never lost an opportunity to teach or mentor a craft whether it was a lesson about Life or it was about a particular art form (painting, carpentry, metalworks, drawing, cake making and pottery) or the art of how to properly care for and train horses/ponies, dogs and birds. Linda immensely adored her two children. She beamed with pride at anything they accomplished, big or small. She was an outstanding mother on so many levels. In the 1980’s to early 1990’s, Linda owned a private cake making business where she was hired by hundreds of local families to make elaborate and creative cakes for local public and private events. Her elite creativity allowed her to design cakes in her own kitchen in Hamilton of Baltimore City, that most professionally studied bakers couldn’t even accomplish at the time. In the Spring of 1985, Linda and Skip bought a 5-acre horse farm near the Pennsylvania state line in Manchester, MD. There she lived training and breeding Quarter Horses, Shetland Ponies and German Shepherds. After many years of training large horses in Western and English disciplines, Linda changed her equine focus to the art of “pony carting”. With the mentoring help of her friends in the horse community, Linda would design, build and construct basic as well as elaborate show cart vehicles to be pulled by her ponies competitively all along the East Coast in local, regional and national competitions. Linda belonged to My Lady’s Manor Driving Association along with her dear lifelong friends within this community who were also practicing and competing like she was. Linda adored this horse/pony community because of how they always helped each other grow in the disciplines related to “carting” and also loved each other as true friends which felt like family to her. Linda enjoyed great success in her driving career, winning multiple show championships and first place ribbons for the performance of her ponies, the carts that she created from scratch and her discipline in driving them. Linda leveraged her business skillsets within the carting field where she developed working business relationships with the local Pennsylvania Amish community in procuring the hand-crafted materials and parts needed to build her pony driving carts both for leisure and competitive pony driving. It was never about winning with Linda. It was always about how much could she positively impact her community to help them creatively achieve their goals and have fun doing it. While honing her elite skillsets with raising/training competitive ponies and driving them, she also took to the art of “flower design” as well. She dedicated herself to learning from very skilled flower design experts in the local community and worked at several flower shops in the area making elaborate floral arrangements bringing joy and color to her customers across four counties of MD. She not only took great pride in this particular work she was a part of but she loved working for and with the people of this floral arrangement making community. She was always stating how thankful she was to them for trusting her with making arrangements that represented them. She adored seeing the smiles from customers when they received what was created by her and her friends’ work as well. In the late Winter of 2004/2005 and the Spring of 2008, Linda became a grandmother when her grandchildren Colin, Julia, Zachary, Andrew and Trinity came into her life through her son Trey and beloved daughter-in-law, Starlynn. Linda adored being a grandmother. She was always so proud of them in all their talents, individual uniqueness, skillsets and triumphs. Linda greatly enjoyed the time teaching and exposing her grandchildren, especially her granddaughters Julia and Trinity, to horseback riding and art projects during their young ages through their teenage years, which was something Linda could connect with them on a deeper level. Each of her grandchildren possessed immense athletic talent as well and she could be found attending their games cheering them from the sidelines with great enthusiasm. Later in Life, Linda and her husband, Skip, spent many years as snowbirds in Florida during the Winter seasons. In 2017, they built a house within the horse community of Steeplechase in Morriston, FL. Linda enjoyed retirement life by drawing, painting, kayaking and driving her pony among the vast trails of the Goethe National Forest. She adored her horse community in which she lived in and the beautiful home they had built for her to enjoy her retirement and life. Linda lived her life with the passion to not only to ALWAYS learn something new but NEVER be afraid of failure. To Linda, failure at anything was merely a potential new doorway to learn how to grow as a better person while helping lead and mentoring her loved ones in her life to enjoy their lives with no regrets in vast love, creativity, courage, patience and intelligence not only for a project to be completed….but for one’s self and soul development as well. Linda Carol Shackelford was an elite lady who will be dearly missed. Her legacy will live on and inspire all who knew her to never forget the positive impact she had on all our lives. She is now in paradise galloping through soft lush green fields in golden sunlight of heaven and love while riding on her late champion quarter horse, Capital Lady One, with all her beloved former horses, ponies, dogs, and parrot joyously traversing next to her. God received His angel back and her loved ones will see her again. The family will receive friends on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, from 2 to 4 & 6 to 8 PM at Haight Funeral Home & Chapel, 6416 Sykesville Road, Sykesville, MD. Interment will be private. Those desiring may make memorial donations to the "Dementia Society of America" at http://www.dementiasociety.org Online condolences may be offered at www.haightfuneralhome.com

Mrs. Linda Carol Shackelford

November 22, 1949 - May 10, 2025