We are saddened to learn that our friend Linda Louise Woods Gabitzsch Lancaster died October 17, 2022, at home in the arms of her husband following a sudden heart attack. Linda was born March 4, 1948, to Roger Louis and Dolly (Best) Woods in Tucson, Ariz. She was raised in Phoenix and graduated in the top 2 percent of her class at North Phoenix High School, where she participated in musicals and a nationally recognized choral program.
Lancaster attended the University of Arizona where she met her first husband, Ronald Burton Gabitzsch. They were married June 8, 1968, and had two children, Heidi Lynn and Bryan James. The family lived in many states and Germany.
In 1975, the family moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala., where Lancaster was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She received a life-saving surgery and spent months learning to walk and talk again. Eventually she returned to college and – while raising two small children – completed her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education in 1979 at the University of Alabama.
Lancaster had a lifelong passion for children and teaching. She taught in Germany, Appalachia, and the Navajo Reservation. After the family moved to Evergreen, she began educating in Jefferson County Public Schools in 1982, first as a teaching assistant at Bergen Elementary. In 1985, she taught kindergarten at Leawood Elementary, eventually returning to Bergen in 1987 where she taught second and third grades until her retirement in 2003.
Lancaster earned a master’s degree in education in 1995 from Regis University. Linda is recognized as one of the creators of Achievement Tests used in many states. She played a significant role in writing Jefferson County’s third grade Native American curriculum. In 2002, Lancaster participated in the Northwest Native American Educational Conference, helping create a culturally acceptable intertribal curriculum for Northwestern K-12 students.
She married her high school sweetheart, Steven Lancaster, on May 20, 2008, in Amherst, NY. The couple supported one another until her death, traveling extensively throughout the country visiting many historical sites, national parks and spending time with their much loved, widely dispersed, children and grandchildren. Following her retirement from education, Lancaster pursued her passion studying Native American art, especially Navajo weaving, and became a nationally certified Navajo rug appraiser in 2008. She and a close friend started a rug sales and appraisal business, Sonachi, to promote Navajo weavers. She also wrote a book on clan signs, symbols in weavings. Lancaster appraised for the Denver Art Museum and the Heard Museum as well as numerous private clients.
She is survived by her husband, Steven Lancaster; children, Heidi Lynn Gabitzsch Evans and Bryan James Gabitzsch; her stepchildren, Frank Lancaster and Danielle Collin; and eleven grandchildren. A private memorial service is scheduled. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Office of Navajo Nation Scholarship & Financial Assistance, onnsfa.org.
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