Lynda Ann Ballentine Givens

After a wonderful conversation with her sisters earlier in the day, Lynda Ann Ballentine Givens went to sleep next to her beloved poodle, Reba after their nightly routine of sharing favorite cookies and woke up in the arms of her Savior. She was also met by her brother whom she longed to be reunited with for the last 50 years. Lynda had three children and a step son, who gave her sixteen grandchildren and one precious great granddaughter.Those sixteen grandchildren and one great granddaughter were the light of her life. Before she proudly became MawMaw she started the first therapeutic horseback riding program in the Piedmont and only the second in the state. She found a great deal of happiness in horses and dogs. She had a very successful horse showing career and bred top quality Arabians and Welsh Ponies. After she got her three children off to college she went back to school and achieved a Masters in Education from Barber-Scotia College. Lynda enjoyed traveling with her husband and had seen and experienced so much of God’s creation. She later took up scrapbooking in which she found so much joy. She made scrapbooks this past Christmas for her family that included pictures, letters, cards and many other treasures she had been saving for twenty plus years. Her chicken enchiladas were a popular request among the grandkids. Lynda lived a very full life. Full of love and happiness. Her legacy will live on in the wonderful memories shared by all who knew and loved her and by all the lives she touched along the way. Her favorite song was What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. The next time you hear it, really listen to the words and think of her.
Lynda was preceded in death by her parents, L. Y. Ballentine Jr. and Mamie Ann Belcher Ballentine and her brother L. Y. Ballentine III. She is survived by her sister Diana Allan, husband Lloyd and their daughters Sarah and Amanda, sister Karen Otis and her husband Pat and their children Marc, Justin, Kristin and Jonathan, husband Larry Givens, her daughter Natalie Johnston and her daughters Ava and Elsa, her son David Johnston II, wife Erin and their children Emma, her husband Christopher and their daughter Ella Ann, David Mark, Patrick, Iain, Anna, Cora and Yates, daughter Laura, husband, Skipper and their son Hudson, her step son Shane, wife Amanda and their children Chaeli, Cadence, Caitlyn, Cooper, Kennedy and Codi Beth.
Lynda will be interred at the Wake Chapel Christian Church Cemetery in Fuquay-Varina, NC with a celebration of life at a later date.
“We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.”

Donations can be made in Lynda’s honor to Saving Grace K9  where dogs are trained as psychiatric service dogs for veterans who suffer from combat PTSD and there is no cost to the veteran.

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