Linden was born in Monroe, North Carolina and was the one of six children to parents Leslie James and Elizabeth Romain Crawford. She was predeceased by siblings Connie Kefalas, JoAnne Flay, James Crawford, and John Crawford. She has one surviving sister, Barbara McClure. When her family moved back to Pennsylvania, she grew up on a farm in Yorkana, PA. She attended Millersville University and  met Dennis R. Groft, Jr. in December 1959. They were married four months later on April 24, 1960. They raised their four children in Columbia, PA. She was predeceased by her oldest child, Deirdre DeVeny (Michael) who passed away January 15, 2026. She is survived by three children, Dawn Eppinger of York, Denise Hannan (Eric) of Alaska, Sar Groft (Christine Musser) of Columbia. She is also survived by 14 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. She lead her life as a faithful servant of God and was an organist for 66 years. She was loving, kind, funny and her capacity to love was expansive. She was dubbed Pollyanna because she always saw the good in everyone and she always  had extra kids along with hers in her VW bus and was known for going either shoeless in the summers and flip flops in the winter. She was her children’s anchor to the world and she will be missed by everyone.  One of her of children’s fondest memories was her taking them to a local farm for fruit and going so fast over the bump in the road that they would all go airborne; buying her children life savers and making them sit in front of her during church services, laughing at herself for making mistakes when she played on Sundays. She had the ability to make everyone around her feel loved and special. She will truly be missed by everyone and her passing has left a chasm in the hearts of her children.