Linda G. Breen

Linda G. Breen (nee Gerlinde Maria Theresia Sendele), residing at Catamount Road in Hillsdale, NY, passed away after a long illness on Monday, June 23rd, 2014. Her funeral will take place at Our Lady of Hope in Copake, NY, (Route 22) on Saturday, July 19th, 2014 at 10.00 a.m. She survived her husband, Thomas M. Breen, who died in 2001.

Linda was born on December 21st, 1932 in Rottweil, Germany (Black Forest region). Her father was the principal of an elementary school. After her kindergarten days in Rottweil, the family moved to Bavaria, where she attended elementary school and High School. As a child, she experienced World War II with the total destruction of her native village in a three-day battle and the death of some of her schoolmates.

Upon graduation from Junior College with the degree "Abitur", Linda worked in Switzerland as a dentist's assistant and emigrated to the USA in 1955. Working as Managing Hostess at the Fairview Country Club in Elmsford, NY, she met her husband Tom Breen, who was the General Manager of this country club.

In 1963, Tom and Linda purchased a historic coaching station at Catamount Valley in Hillsdale, NY, which had been transferred into an inn in the early nineteen hundreds. They re-named the inn Swiss Hutte Restaurant. The property underwent various expansions and the restaurant became a culinary landmark in the Berkshire area. In 1986, Linda and Tom went into retirement.

Linda and Tom had no children. They enjoyed their retirement years by living partially on the island of Cap Key in the Bahamas, where they owned a house, and in Catamount Valley, where they had built a new home adjacent to their former property.

Linda is survived by her brother Hermann Sendele, who lives in Munich (Bavaria), and various nieces and nephews in Connecticut, in Westchester County, in Florida, and in Bavaria.

Linda fought a long battle with leukemia and other ailments. The day before her death, Father Brennan of Our Lady of Hope in Copake conducted the anointing of the sick ceremony in her house, blessed the re-marriage of her brother and baptized Maximilian, her grandnephew. To live to see this ceremony was her last wish and she died peacefully the following day.

Arrangements are with the Peck and Peck Funeral Home of Copake, NY.

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