“The very best sale I ever made was convincing Shawn to marry me” says Jim.
Jim Linch has been in insurance sales for five decades and yet his career has always been subservient to his deep love for God and for Shawn and their son and now college-age grandson.
Jim and Shawn have been constants at Southside since they moved to the south side of town in 1989. Jim’s warm smile and firm handshake have been welcoming people to Southside for nearly 30 years. Shawn’s beautiful singing voice has ministered to numerous Southside families at weddings and funerals through those years.
Photo by Olaf Growald (www.growaldphotography.com)
Shawn was a “Preachers Kid” (the beloved M.L.Sexton) and she lived throughout the southeast during his sixty years of preaching the gospel. She graduated from Freed Hardeman and Abilene Christian and taught for more than 30 years in elementary schools, special education, and homebound students. Jim’s career caused him to travel often and Shawn juggled career and family. He calls her “Superwoman”. They had met and married in Lawton, OK in 1963 where Jim was stationed at Fort Sill. He had served in the Army “Special Forces” during the Cold War years including a tour in Germany that he particularly enjoyed. The G.I. Bill provided for further education after his exemplary military service.
Their interests are many. Shawn loves reading and traveling. Jim has an impressive collection of beautiful writing pens and also military memorabilia including medals and service pins. Each Wednesday one will find Jim visiting several of our homebound brethren to read the Bible, newspapers, or articles that he thinks would interest our older gentlemen. This quiet ministry to our elderly gentlemen is an inspirational one that reminds us to remember the giants still among us.
They say “Life is like a book—without study and travel one would forever stay on the first page of the book”. Their full lives of service to God, the church, our nation, to their family, and to others is perfectly captured by this credo.
We are blessed to have Jim and Shawn Linch as a vital part of the “PEOPLE OF SOUTHSIDE”.
