LINDA SANDERS HALLAM

Funeral services for Linda Sanders Hallam of Gainesville, FL, formerly of Des Moines, IA, and formally of Morrow, LA, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, April 2, 2011. The service will take place at the Big Cane Baptist Church with the Rev. Joseph Bordelon officiating. Burial will follow in the Church Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Hixson-Ducote Funeral Home of Bunkie.
Mrs. Hallam, 59, passed away on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. Her parents, Richard and Annetta Foster Sanders, preceded her.
Survivors include her husband Stephen Hallam of Gainesville; her two sons, Dallas Hallam and wife Michelle of Los Angeles, CA, and Steven Forrest Hallam of Des Moines, IA; and her siblings, Susan Riemer and husband Owen of Morrow, and Dorothy Boger and husband William of Washington, DC and their families.
Mrs. Hallam was born in Alexandria, LA in 1951 and graduated with distinction from Louisiana State University in 1973. In 1974 she entered the LSU master's program in journalism, and was quickly hired as a reporter for The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, MS. In 1984 she began a twelve year career at Southern Living magazine in Birmingham, AL, that culminated when the September 1996 issue published the story most beloved to her in all her career: A Year in the Land of Cotton.
At the end of 1996 Mrs. Hallam moved her family north as she took on the role of Book Group Senior Editor for the Meredith Corporation. It was there that she wrote and edited twenty-two books under the Better Homes and Gardens and Traditional Home imprints.
Before leaving Meredith in 2008, Mrs. Hallam worked for three years as the Senior Design Editor for Traditional Home, and spent five years editing Special Interest Media. It was during her last year in Des Moines that she enrolled at Drake University to finish her master's degree. She graduated in May of 2008 with a Master's of Public Administration degree and a 4.0 GPA.
After earning her MPA, Mrs. Hallam was accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where she taught Introductory Journalism courses and researched her doctoral thesis in media, health information, and public policy. She wrote and taught until the time of her passing.
Friends may call from 5:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. on Friday and 8:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at Hixson-Ducote Funeral Home of Bunkie.
Memorial donations may be made to the Animal Rescue League, the Humane Society, or the LSU Alumni Scholarship fund. Also, Mrs. Hallam would prefer that donations be made in lieu of flowers.
Online condolences may be sent to www.hixson-ducote.com