Sisters, Linda and Jeanie, have been singing together since their early childhood. Linda recalls playing little 45 rpms and making up a song and dance routine to "The Erie Canal" in the privacy of their room. It was always about harmony. We sat on each side of Mama at church (because Jeanie wouldn't behave) and Mama was an alto - so, naturally, we learned to harmonize. Linda had a good friend in high school that she performed with - Susan Wilson. Susan sang lead and Linda harmonized. They actually sang for a high school talent show when they were in 8th grade and won a plastic trophy that broke in half and they each kept half. They also sang for end of the year banquets like "The Future Nurses Association." Linda was also in the high school chorus and had a solo one year.
She organized a barbershop quartet while in nurses' training which sang for the Ohio Student Nurses Association convention. And another year, she worked up a comedy skit with another nurse and sang "There's a Hole in the Bucket-Dear Liza." It was hysterical!!! They performed their winning act for the Ohio Student Nurses Association convention and recalls singing folk songs with another student nurse, Liza, for some get together. It was always about singing!!! However, she and her 'lil sis weren't singing then. Jeanie was busy trying to grow up - ain't happened yet!!!
After nurses training, Linda went to VietNam to visit her brother, who had been stationed there for five years. She ended up staying and working for PACEX (Pacific Air Command Exchange) as a secretary and ordered her first guitar from the Sears catalog while in Saigon. She recalls going to Dalat and singing in some little club - but doesn't remember much of that.
Back to the states she went to get her degree in nursing at Abilene Christian College. While there, she sang in "Chorallaires" and toured the midwest. It was there that she and Jeanie started singing together again as a duo. They took their duo back to West Virginia and had Trish join them at West Virginia University and the rest is history. It was magic from the beginning. They had the same love for harmony and performing.
When the group parted due to Trish's marriage, Jeanie and Linda continued as a duo and that was wonderful. They sang in lots of places in the Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia area. But the Ohio River Valley wasn't kind to Linda's allergies and asthma got the best of her. She moved to Albuquerque and Jeanie moved to the Keys. It was always about music, and Linda sang for weddings, some political events and in the clubs of Albuquerque and wrote songs. Whatever happened to those songs? After marriage, three kids and a divorce, she started singing again for weddings and other things, joining Barry Rawls occasionally to perform in state parks and restaurants. They had a great sound. It was always about singing. But working full time as a nurse, raising three kids - well, you know the story. She just couldn't do it all and the kids needed a full time Mom, so she did the right thing - worked and raised her young'uns. But the kids are raised now and The Hilltop Singers are back together again and as Linda will tell you - "I Feel So Good About It!!"