Staff, customers remember Tucson businesswoman and dog groomer

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — When you walk into the Camp Bow Wow on North Oracle, you're greeted with smiling faces, lots of pups and this memorial:

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Linda Burkett was the original owner of this Camp Bow Wow location.

"She brought it up. She did it from the ground up. This is her building this is her property, she made everything from scratch and it was meant to be a Camp Bow Wow," says Valerye Rutledge.

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"She kept every detail in mind down to this gate that you see outside. That's not a regular camp bow wow thing, that's a Linda Burkett thing," says Amanda Boone.

She spent her days doing what made her happy.

"Her passion was dogs, her passion was Camp Bow Wow," says employee Jane Windelcardoza.

Until one day—tragedy struck while she was at the place she loved most.

Rutledge says, "Her passing happened in the hospital—however, the incident that started it all ended up here. She fell here in the parking lot."

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She died at the age of 71.

Rutledge says, "I don't think there could have been a more honorable way for her to go out. If she was going to go out, it would've been doing what she loved, which is taking care of the dogs."

Now this Camp Bow Wow is under new ownership, where Alan and Lisa Schrope are letting these employees keep her memory alive.

"They wanted to come into this with respect to Linda," says Rebecca Rhoades.

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"We've got so many customers that came here when their dogs were babies and now they are old. That's Linda's legacy."

So when you walk into the Camp Bow Wow on North Oracle, you're sure to hear the name Linda Burkett.

"We talk about her everyday. I don't think there's a day that goes by where we don't talk about her."

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