SURVIVOR & overcomer
Linnie Doyle: singing from her heart
Linnie Doyle has walked paths of both hardship and blessing during her life. Through it all, she’s kept her faith and spent her life singing gospel songs like the ones she first heard in church. (Courtesy photo)
By Steve Bertel Some people serve the Lord by speaking to audiences and congregations. Others, by helping non-profit groups. And still others serve the Lord by using their creative talents. Linnie Doyle does all of the above. Raised in both DeKalb, Ill. and Tacoma, Wash., Linnie – no, that’s not a nickname – is the third oldest of six brothers and four sisters. With a family that large, it was a hardscrabble life for her parents; luckily, the Salvation Army often helped out with food and gifts, especially during Christmas holidays. Her mother was the family’s “backbone” as Linnie puts it – always taking care of everyone and, as a faithful Christian, always taking her children to church every Sunday. “Mom didn’t drive. She walked everywhere. When she’d walk to the store to go shopping in DeKalb, she’d be gone for several hours, and we’d be home with our dad.” Unfortunately, “he drank a lot. And when he’d get drunk, he’d abuse us. In fact, he sexually molested at least three of us kids – that we know of.” Linnie was just a toddler when the abuse began, but says she can still vividly remember the horror. “What’s more, he’d many times threaten to kill us by purposely leaving a butcher knife on the kitchen counter for us kids to see, knowing we knew what it meant.” For years, her mother wasn’t aware of the abuse. “She had no idea what my dad was doing to us, until my sister finally reached the end of her rope; I really believe God gave her the courage to come forward and tell Mom the horrific things that had been going on in our house all those years.” Linnie’s mother reported the abuse to authorities, which resulted in her father being arrested, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
32 January / February 2022 | Christian Living
Soon after her parents divorced, Linnie’s mother came to know another man – who attended the same church. The two eventually married and moved their family to Washington. “I don’t know if they were actually in love, but I know my mom certainly needed somebody solid in her life at that time. And as far as us kids, we were all excited for this new life with this new ‘dad,’” Linnie remembers. The family soon found a nearby neighborhood church to attend and, every Sunday, mom and dad and the kids would all head off to the morning service. “It was a little, old-fashioned Pentecostal church in downtown Tacoma,” Linnie fondly recalls. “What everybody today calls a ‘holy roller church,’ where everyone’s rollin’ in the aisles and praisin’ God!” As a result, Linnie’s faith developed at an early age. “Our pastor’s on-fire messages made you want to have a close, personal relationship with the Lord! So at age 9, I asked Him into my heart; I knew I needed the Lord in my life to get me through each and every day.” With that early-age faith also came an early-age interest in gospel music … and singing. “Our church brought in a lot of (traveling) gospel singers over the years: duets, groups, even families with children. And wow, they really sang from their hearts! I told Jesus, ‘Lord, I would love to do that someday!’” Linnie’s mother had already taught her to sing – “I always sat next to her in the pew so that, when we stood up and sang, I could learn from the best!” Linnie says – but she knew if she wanted to sing professionally, it’d be an uphill climb, since she didn’t have any formal music training. “So I’d pour my heart out at altar calls, asking the Lord to somehow, someway – in His time – help me use my voice to be a blessing to others.” But while Linnie was making a joyful noise in church, things were far from joyful at home. What the family didn’t know was that this new man – this new ‘dad’ – in their lives wasn’t as “solid” as they had first thought. He had been a child abuse victim as well. “So he was still pretty emotionally and physically damaged when he married my mom. And being a prideful man, he had never shared his past experiences with anybody.” As a result, “He was very abusive to us kids. Not sexually, like my biological father had been. But emotionally abusive: frequently calling us names, and beating us with his leather belt or big sticks from the firewood box.” Essentially, an iron-fisted man who took his staunch belief in God to the extreme. “He always preached the fear of God into us. And he’d make us ask for forgiveness every day, even if we hadn’t done anything bad,” Linnie recalls. As such, she found herself often struggling with the Fifth Commandment. “I could honor Mom with no problem. That was easy. But to honor my stepdad, especially for the terrible way he was treating us, well, that was another story. So I had to pray through it each time, relying on the promise in Jeremiah 29:11 where the Lord says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’.” In her late-teen years, Linnie met a “big, handsome man” named Jack Doyle. And they soon became close. So close, they fell in love. But there was a speed bump. “It was always my intent to marry a fellow believer. I knew Jack was a good man – he was kind, gentle, had strong moral
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