Salem, NY - Mary Linda Embser LEWIS was born in Wellsville, NY, on June 3, 1941. She was the eldest daughter of Richard Joseph Embser of Wellsville, whose family was from there, and Louise Dunn Embser, who was the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Daly Dunn of Rochester.

She attended Immaculate Conception School in Wellsville and completed her secondary education at St. Agnes School in Rochester. Upon her graduation from Alfred University, she joined the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, where she had earlier been part of the White House Summer Seminar on Government in the summer between her sophomore and junior year of college, during the Kennedy Administration.

She married George Thompson Lewis whom she had met when they were both students at Alfred University while she was an undergraduate and he a graduate student. After their marriage in 1965, they moved to Houston, Texas, where he was with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), working on the Gemini and Apollo Space Missions. Upon completion of his work there, they spent several months traveling in Europe before settling in Dutchess County where George had taken a position with IBM. Within a year they were posted to Paris, France, where they lived for the next several years, traveling extensively during that time and entertaining great numbers of guests from all over.

Returning to America, they became parents of four children. The eldest is Thomas Dunn Lewis, who married Jennifer Castro Anderson of Washington, DC. Tom is with the Department of Economics at Georgetown University, and Jen is the lead on transparency and integrity initiatives at the Inter-American Development Bank. They are the parents of Thomas Joseph and Adelaide. Second son, Michael-George Lewis, is married to Ai Muraoka of Hiroshima, Japan, whom he met when they were both college students in Boston. They live in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, with their three sons, Amane, Seia, and Kensei. Michael teaches music in Rhode Island. Daughter Caitlain married Thomas Joseph Clary from just across the street in Salem, New York. They are parents of three daughters, twins Vera and Louise, and Agnes. Caitlain is a law professor at Albany Law School, and Tom is a CPA. And the youngest, Courtenay, is married to Shawn Flanagan, whom she met when they were both PhD students at the University of Connecticut. Courtenay is a scientific editor, and Shawn is with the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

When their youngest child, Courtenay, was three, Dr. and Mrs. Lewis moved to Bangkok, Thailand, which made it possible for them to travel widely in both Asia and Europe. In Thailand, Linda volunteered with the American Embassy Social Welfare Group, providing help to indigent and disabled Thai children and assistance to Peace Corp Workers. When their assignment was complete, the family, along with Linda’s sister, Susan Embser, made their way home overland as much as was possible, traveling through India, Nepal, Kashmir, Hong Kong, and Japan, where they crossed the Sea of Japan into Siberia to travel all along the southern borders of Manchuria and Mongolia into the former Soviet Union. They traveled by rail through the Ural Mountains, crossing the line between Asia and Europe, north as far as the Gulf of Finland, then down into Belarus, Poland, East Germany, and West Germany into Berlin, amazed when two months later the Berlin Wall fell. Arriving back in America, they returned to their home in Bedford Hills, New York.

Two years later, they returned to Asia, where they lived in Indonesia for most of the 1990s. In Jakarta, Mrs. Lewis taught at the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia, and published in Asiaweek magazine and the Jakarta Post, while the children variously completed college, high school, and middle school. They again traveled extensively during those years, sailing around the Islands of the Indian Ocean and the Java Sea; flying over the Volcanoes of the Ring of Fire; visiting rainforests, rice terraces, Sumatra, Australia, and even Africa; and flying frequently through Singapore, Japan, and Europe, while fostering their interests in Asian art, languages, religions, cuisines, music, and dance. At the end of 1998, after several tumultuous months in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the May 1998 Indonesian Riots and Revolution, they were forced to leave Indonesia.

Returning to America, they settled in Saratoga Springs, New York. Linda became active on several boards in the area and worked with Saratoga Bridges (formerly Saratoga County Association of Retarded Citizens), Saratoga County Arts Council, Opera Saratoga (formerly Friends of the Lake George Opera), and Saratoga Springs-Chekhov (Russia) Sister City Partnership.

In 2004, as their children were finishing up their college and graduate degrees, the family purchased the Historic Audubon House in Salem, New York, where they have lived ever since.

Linda is the sister of Susan Embser of Durham, North Carolina; sister of John William Embser and sister-in-law to Diana Embser, of Wellsville, New York; sister to the late Betty Embser Wattenberg and sister-in-law to Mark Wattenberg of Wellsville; and sister to the late Gail Embser (Pickup). They came from a family of great readers, as was Linda. As a young person, Linda studied piano, violin, ballet, and harp, and spent lots of time outdoors horseback riding, swimming, and loving winter activities.

For generations, Linda’s family was involved in education, government, and business. Her interests were primarily in political and economic issues, wishing that American journalism was independent and not tied to corporate interests. This would give citizens a better opportunity to understand how to get at the truth of their own history and what was going on presently, thereby helping them to protect their own interests, while promoting justice and wellbeing around the world, instead of war and exploitation. And maybe even insisting on the protection of the planet itself.

Linda and her wonderful husband, George, were married for 57 years; both were very grateful for their families, their opportunities, and the life they led.

Calling Hours in Salem, New York, will be held at McClellan-Gariepy Funeral Home, 19 East Broadway, on Saturday, May 9, 2026, from 3:00 – 5:00 PM.

The Funeral will be held in Wellsville, New York, with Calling Hours at Olney-Foust and Embser Funeral Homes & Cremation, 34 West State Street, on Friday, May 15, 2026, from 7:00 – 9:00 PM. A Requiem Mass will be held at Immaculate Conception Church, 36 Maple Avenue, Wellsville, on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 12:00 Noon. Burial will be at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Wellsville.

Memorials in Linda’s name may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, or Mercy Corps.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.wellsvillefuneralhome.com.