Linda Gonzalez

Linda Gonzalez taught art at St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma for 30 years and owned two art galleries, one in Petaluma and one in Sonoma.

Gonzalez was a painter and photographer and taught stained-glass making to adults, said her husband of 37 years, Michael Gonzalez.

"She was very easy to get along with and very kind to everybody," he said. "And generous. A very lovable person. Everybody liked her in town."

Gonzalez died Dec. 23 in her Petaluma home from skin cancer. She was 72.

She was born in San Francisco in 1937, the only child of Bill and Geraldine Fromhagen of Marin County. Her father was a Standard Oil sales executive and her mother was a retail worker.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened the day after she was born and she was among the those who crossed it in its first few days, Gonzalez said.

"She was almost born on the bridge, you could say," Gonzalez said.

The family lived in Sausalito. She graduated from San Dominico High in Fairfax and was voted Miss Marin County in 1957, according to family members.

"She was attractive, beautiful and personable," her husband said.

She attended nearby Dominican University, graduating in 1959 with degrees in art and Spanish and a teaching credential.

She married shortly after and had two children, a boy and a girl. She was divorced eight years later and moved to Petaluma to take a teaching job at St. Vincent's.

In 1972 she married Michael Gonzalez, a fellow teacher at the school.

In 1988, she and Gonzalez opened Gallery One on Western Avenue. They opened a gallery in Sonoma in 2000 but closed it a year later.

She retired from teaching in 1999 to devote herself to art and a wide variety of causes. She served on various committees for the Petaluma Downtown Association and Petaluma Chamber of Commerce and was a generous supporter of the Petaluma Educational Foundation, Hospice of Petaluma and St. Vincent High.

She was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. Her husband said her goals were to see her daughter get married and to be alive for her own wedding anniversary, which was Dec. 22.

She did both.

In addition to her second husband, she is survived by her daughter, Brenda Bernheim Straub of Tiburon and son, Brad Bernheim of Mill Valley.

Family and friends are invited to a memorial 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5, at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Petaluma.