Biography

Linda Eddy Faga was born in Jefferson in 1942, the oldest child of a farm family. Her family moved several times during her school years, settling south of Stuart in Adair County. She graduated from Stuart Community High School in 1960 and moved to Des Moines where she worked as a key punch operator for three years before marrying an Adair County farmer Jack Faga. They rented farms for six years, then bought his parents’ 160 acre farm near Casey, Iowa. Their three children were born between 1964 and 1973. They built up a small dairy herd, raised hogs from farrow to finish, and farmed between 450 to 500 acres of grain crops. Drought and low prices between 1979 and 1981 forced them to borrow money from the Production Credit Association. When interest rates escalated, they were unable to meet payments and in 1984 they sold down their machinery, dairy herd, cattle, and feeder pegs. They also put their farmland into the Conservation Reserve Program. The farm sale was one of the earliest in the county and the Fagas took a leading role in forming support networks: Linda Faga organized a women’s support group through the local Catholic Church while Jack Faga organized a branch of Iowa Farm Unity Coalition in Adair. He began employment at a local farm equipment dealer and she found work at the local nursing home. Later, they became the managers of the successful Lalley Bed and Breakfast Inn in Adair. They sent three of their children to college in the 1980s.

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