Mitzi Linn

Mitzi Linn was born Mitzi Jean Henschen on January 28, 1944, in Indianapolis, IN to a German immigrant father and German-American mother. She had a sister and brother. The family moved to Vincennes, IN when Mitzi was five. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1962 and that fall began attending Hanover College, Hanover, IN. She graduated from Hanover in 1966 after spending her junior year in England, at Hull University. An English major, she minored in art and philosophy. Some of her closest friends were professors in these study areas.

 She married Richard Allen Linn, MD, in 1967 in Washington, DC after meeting in Cincinnati, OH. In 1968 they moved to Woodstock, NY to pursue a dropped-out lifestyle. There she pursued print making and writing poetry, passions of her college years. They separated in 1969 and later divorced. 

 Mitzi moved to San Francisco, became part of a hippie "family", worked non-descript part time jobs, painted in oil, wrote poetry and songs. She decided then that she needed time to develop herself, for personal/spiritual growth and creative self-expression. This was a major commitment in her life.

 Along with other hippie brothers and sisters she moved to Wolf Creek, OR in 1970. After living on a commune for a year she spent three years living alone in a cabin on 100 acres of forest land. There she continued painting, playing and writing songs, writing poems, and studying esoteric knowledge including the Tarot and Astrology. 

 She got into feminism and the spiritual feminine movement, barely born at the time. Along with friends she did healing rituals at the appropriate times of the natural year: the Solstices, Equinoxes, etc., in honor of the Goddess. She studied shamanism, healing, Tibetan Buddhism, and the western occult tradition with various teachers. She kept a large organic garden, cut winter firewood, had a dog name Kyote, and learned to fix cars at Chuck Keto's garage. Back to the land, and survival, along with further refining personal and spiritual growth, filled her days and nights. Her poems and songs were published in various small publications.

 In 1975 she moved to Eugene, OR to play music with women friends. She worked in various part time jobs. In 1976 she met Steve Lebow, whom she married in 1982. She joined his family of two children. In 1980 she began doing Tarot readings, healings, and teaching classes and workshops in various esoteric disciplines. She became a Tibetan Buddhist when she took refuge with Ven. Gyaltrul, Rinpoche, a Tibetan meditation master she met in 1980.

 In 1982 she and Steve started spending some time in Oaxaca, Mexico. Mitzi fell in love with Oaxaca, and as she and Steve separated in the late 1980s, she began to spend winters in Oaxaca. There she began singing and playing again as well as painting. Her goal continued to be growing personally and spiritually, as well as personal expression. She learned Spanish and developed on-going relationships with Oaxacan culture and Oaxacan people. When she sold a painting in 1991, she realized she'd become an artist. After that she began showing her work in Eugene and other places in the U.S. and Mexico. 

 Coming and going to Oaxaca she developed a house-sitting business that gave her places to live in Eugene, Oaxaca, and later in northern New Mexico. She received some inheritance from both her parents as well as sold paintings, reproductions, and cards as part of her art business. She wrote a number of stories from her life called "Wild Wisdom Highway" and "Mi Querida Oaxaca" which are not published. In more recent years, having retired from house-sitting, Mitzi was content to visit with friends in person or on social media, take short walks, and just be comfortable in her cozy apartment in Eugene. 

 Mitzi was always grateful that she could do things for a living that she really loved. She was content to have free time in exchange for not having much money. Poverty is often a mental and emotional state, especially in the U.S. where materialism is so overrated. She was grateful also for friendships with others in the U.S. and Mexico.

 Mitzi is survived by her sister Rita Henschen, stepdaughter Illya Koenig, stepson Sheldon Lebow, stepdaughter-in-law Lora Lebow, and their son Adam. She hopes all who remember her will do so with kindness, and be blessed in their own lives.

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The above obituary was written some years ago by Mitzi Linn, who passed away comfortably in her sleep on August 13, 2024. She was loved and will be missed by the many dear ones who were in her life. 

Please, no flowers. Donations may be made in memory of Mitzi Linn to: 

Tashi Choling Center for Buddhist Studies 

P.O. Box 64 Ashland, OR 97520