LITCHFIELD – Linda L. Atkins, 66, died peacefully at Still Point, her home in Litchfield, on Thursday, Oct. 20, after several years of fighting ovarian cancer. Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice and her family provided support and care to allow her to remain at home.

Linda conducted a private psychotherapy practice at the Steven Mills Grange Hall Professional Building in Auburn and at Still Point in Litchfield. She is known as a healer, a wise woman, and one who assisted others to follow their dreams.

She was born in Hopkinsville, Ky., on Sept. 29, 1939. Her parents were George L. Atkins Sr. and Frances Shaver Atkins. She graduated from Hopkinsville High School and earned a bachelor of arts in education at Kentucky Wesleyan College.

In 1960, Linda married Ellis Johnson of Hopkinsville, and moved to Boston, Mass.

She was a consultant in organizational development with churches, businesses and educational institutions in the Boston area. She trained at the Cambridge Family Institute and received an M.A. in counseling from Lesley College. Linda helped pioneer the collaboration of family therapy with family medicine in Everett, Mass.

In 1982, Linda married David Blocher in Cambridge, Mass. They moved to Maine in 1986 and began restoring a farmhouse and land on Oak Hill in Litchfield, where Linda established beautiful flower gardens, rebuilt stone walls and adopted stray cats.

She was an avid patron of the Auburn Public Library and the Public Theater in Lewiston.

Surviving Linda are her husband, David Blocher, of Litchfield; her former husband, the Rev. Ellis Johnson of Newton, Mass.; her brother, George Atkins Jr. and his wife, Donna, of Columbus, Ga.; her son, Dean Johnson, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; her daughters, Beth Johnson and Tracy Turner of Dixfield; stepdaughters, Gretchen Blocher and Margaret Blocher of Vanceboro, N.C.; stepson, William Blocher and his wife, Karen, of Ayer, Mass.; six grandchildren; and six nieces and nephews.

She is much loved and will be greatly missed.

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