Linda Lee (Larson) Behrendt

Linda Lee (Larson) Behrendt

Iowa City

Linda Lee (Larson) Behrendt passed away on October 18, 2025 in Iowa City in the loving care of her husband, Doug, and surrounded by her family. Linda was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 25, 1939 to Tom and Lillian (Rice) Larson. Tom, born in Sweden, worked in the chemical industry and was transferred to Barrington, Rhode Island where Linda grew up and learned piano, sailing and golf and developed her lifelong love of dogs. She attended Barrington High School and then Lasell Junior College in Boston.

In 1958 while serving as a bridesmaid in Rhode Island she met Doug who was groomsman at the wedding; they married a year later and honeymooned in Europe before moving to Boston. There she worked as a secretary while Doug finished his medical school and surgical training. During this time she had three children, Stephen, Deborah and Kristen. Before leaving Boston the family spent a year in England and at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland for Doug’s additional training.

The family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1973 for Doug’s first university position as a cardiothoracic surgeon. Linda worked as a secretary at Greenhills School from which her children graduated. She helped to instill in her three children a love of reading, the arts, music, travel and pets.

In 1986 the family moved to Iowa City when Doug became chairman of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Iowa. Linda and Doug resided part of the year in Hopetown in the northern Bahamas where they gained a new group of lifelong friends.

In Iowa City and Coralville, Linda supported local theater, Hancher Auditorium and the University of Iowa Art Museum, where she volunteered as a docent. She made many friends through the Hiking Club and play reading group called “Every other Thursday.” Linda treasured her friendship with Andrea Keech. In Ann Arbor and then Iowa City Linda and Doug developed their lifelong friendship with Jeri and Bob Kelch, who became travel buddies on numerous trips.

Linda was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Robert H. Larson. Survivors include her husband Doug; her son Steve and his wife Linda Robyn Gray; her daughter Deb and her husband Brian Singleton; her daughter Kristen and her husband Jordan DeGrazia; her grandchildren Mason DeGrazia (and his fiancée Emma Jenks), Maia DeGrazia, Tess DeGrazia and Lauren Singleton; Doug’s sisters Ellen Rowntree and Ruth Blanchard; and many Larson relatives.

Linda’s greatest joy was being with her four grandchildren and watching them grow up to become wonderful adults.

The family will always be grateful to Iowa City Hospice and her caregivers from Cornerstone and Oaknoll for their compassionate care.

To celebrate Linda’s life, memorial donations may be made in her honor to Iowa City Hospice or the Lillian Rice Larson Voice Scholarship at the University of Iowa Foundation, which Linda established.