Bloomington - Linda Bachman Felker loved drinking wine with friends, traveling the world with her husband, Dave, and laughing.

Linda died Oct. 18. She was 83 years old.

Linda grew up in Minneapolis, the oldest of three children of Ralph and Marguerite Bachman. She, like other members of the Bachman's floral family, worked at the business growing up, including at the store's downtown Dayton's location. She was a proud graduate of Washburn High School and the University of Minnesota.

After graduation she sought to make her own life. She moved west and taught at Bowers Elementary in Santa Clara, Calif., where she and another teacher, Judy Hart, became lifelong friends. They hatched a plan that was innovative at the time for young students. Instead of each teacher learning every subject, the teachers chose specialties -- Linda's was reading -- and the kids rotated from class to class.

Linda and Judy loved to hold wine-tasting gatherings with friends, which often transitioned to home-cooked dinners. Linda was drawn to learning new skills and enrolled in lessons for everything from ballet and tennis to skiing.

Linda and Judy were on a ski trip in Utah in the mid-1980s when they met two men. One was David Felker. Eventually, he and Linda married. Linda joined Dave in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and helped him run a pizza place he owned called TJ's.

When they tired of that tough business, they moved to the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. They got deep into antiques and other collectibles, buying up bargains and selling treasures.

At one point Linda became intensely interested in birding, and she and Dave traveled to all 50 states to spot new species. They also took cruises all over the world, including to Italy and Alaska. They lived for a time in Florida and later in Bloomington, Minn.

Linda served as a volunteer in an adult-literacy program at the Dakota County Library in Eagan. She also made generous donations to the U of M to create need-based scholarships

"Linda was a multi-talented person and she shared her talents and her love with other people," said her sister-in-law, Barbara Bachman.

Linda is survived by her husband, Dave; her younger brothers and their spouses, Walter and Elizabeth Bachman, and Bruce and Barbara Bachman; her stepdaughter, Kelli Felker; stepson David Felker and his wife, Karen; three granddaughters, Cara Wood, Alicia and Trista Felker; and several nieces and nephews.

Donations in Linda's memory may be made to Friends of Wood Lake, at the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield. A celebration of life is being planned for what would have been her 84th birthday: May 1, 2026.