When Linda Stone joined the American Legion Auxiliary in 1971, she didn’t plan to take on a leadership role. But she would go on to become president of Unit 166 in Walcott, N.D.
 
When she became president, she didn’t plan to keep the role long-term. But in 2026 when she stepped down from the position, she had served in the role for 36 consecutive years.
 
During her tenure, Stone was a driving force behind the group’s most significant events — from fundraising activities to active-duty servicemember support. She said mission work too was not part of any grand plan. It was simply a matter of stepping up when no one else did, and then doing the job she’d been tasked with doing.
 
“We tried to carry it through as best we could,” Stone said.
 
Stone joined the ALA at the urging of her friends who were members, learning all she could about the organization and its work by carefully paying attention to discussions and activities at each meeting. At an officer election in which no one else volunteered to be president of her unit, she was ready. She agreed to the position.
 
Each year after that, the unit’s members looked to Stone to continue as president. She also would go on to hold roles such as district president and chair of the Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Field and Home Service Committee. 
 
Along the way, she was strengthening her leadership and presentation skills and earning accolades for her service.

“But I didn’t do it for the award,” Stone said. “I did it because I enjoyed it. Everything we did was important to me.”
 
Each role represented an opportunity to support veterans and their families, a mission that had be
come so dear to Stone. She has many family ties to the military, including her husband, an Air Force veteran. Her daughters joined her in ALA membership shortly after she became part of the organization.
 
Stone’s guidance and behind-the-scenes work helped make activities and events possible that have shaped Unit 166 and the veterans and community it serves. 

Among those efforts were Memorial Day programs and dinners, which she planned and then assisted with by coordinating volunteers and providing on-site help. She described the fundraising events as the most meaningful work of her presidency. 
 
Another example of the unit’s efforts under Stone’s leadership was a campaign to knit helmet caps for servicemembers during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She also has regularly visited local cemeteries to honor ALA members laid to rest there.
 
So effective was her work that members likely would have selected her to carry on her work beyond 2026, but she declined, explaining that it was time for new leadership. 
 
In passing the torch, she advised following a path like hers — paying attention to direction and then following through on responsibilities outlined in that guidance. But she also recommended that future presidents make the role their own.
 
“Read what you get from the Auxiliary, and do that,” she said. “But it’s however you want to do it, not just how I did it.”