Linda Suzanne Hammer
(7-31-1953 - 3-5-2012)
Founder of The-Seeker The-Seeker.com 1-1-1995
Linda Hammer, a veteran of U.S. Navy, was a former private process server,
former private investigator, radio talk show host, newspaper columnist, and
publisher of one of the largest websites on the internet that helps people
find their missing friends and relatives in the world!
She started out as a child. A child who was born in Miami, FL and moved to
Ft. Lauderdale when she was 8, then over to Venice, FL at age 16. Her
father, N Robert Hammer (7-3-1925 - 8-19-2001), was in banking and was
offered a great opportunity. Shortly after high school, Linda joined the
U.S. Navy, and was stationed in Norfolk, VA. She was buried with full
Military honors in Sarasota, FL in April of 2012. Upon leaving the service,
she moved to South Carolina for the ensuing 3 years. Family reasons took
her back to Florida.
Linda then went to work at the State Attorney's Office, and at the same
time, went to college at the University of South Florida and obtained a
degree in Criminal Justice (courtesy of the Navy and the Law Enforcement
Educational Assistance Program) and was in law enforcement in some form or
fashion for most of her life, and to Linda, the most significant of all
endeavors, was that she was the first private process server in Sarasota,
FL - and the first female process server in the State of Florida.
She later moved to Houston - ultimately Dallas - where she was in Banking,
in the regulatory side of it, off and on for ten years and then went back
into process serving and private investigating, licensed through Texas,
investigating primarily life, health, and disability cases. Searching for
people was second nature to her. She saw a need to help people find missing
friends and relatives and not just dead beat dads or people being sued or
people who defraud insurance companies.
One day, while she was listening to Kasey Kasum on a Top 40 radio show, she
was thinking, "He is syndicated, and wouldn't it be great if he could say on
his show that Linda Hammer is looking for John Duffy (a guy she always
wondered what ever happened to...)." Then she started thinking that she
could do a radio show herself and syndicate it and help people find missing
friends and relatives. But then she started thinking "what if John didn't
listen to that station?" Linda ultimately DID find John Duffy on
10-24-1999. She used her own Site Seeking section to find him and said she
should have done it a long time before that but then, The-Seeker may never
have come to pass. Unfortunately, John lost a battle with cancer and passed
away early in the morning on 10-1-2005. Linda was thankful that John went
to Florida to visit her the year before and she spoke with him a week
before. While John Duffy was the reason she began The-Seeker, he is also
the reason The-Seeker will be around, and Linda's dream to help others be
reunited with their friends and family for years to come... After John
died, she said, "I will continue to encourage people to search for their
missing friends and relatives - before it is too late. "
Linda began her radio career on a Jacor station (later Clear Channel) WSPB
1470 in Sarasota, FL. It wasn't what she really had in mind but it got her
foot in the door for what would eventually be her own syndicated World Wide
radio program. Unlike the taped shows where she read messages people posted
in her site, she went on to have an extensive following no matter what
station she was on. She had a column in the Venice Gondolier Sun Newspaper
and the North Port Sun - both in Florida. It was kinda like the Ann
Landers' column - only of the people finding people business.
"My advice to radio talk show host wannabees: Get fully sponsored first!
Do not say the first word on the air until you are sponsored! Do not think
that because you think you have an interesting topic that the world gives a
damn about what you have to say. It doesn't matter. What matters is what
you can sell! To those of you who think a syndicator will buy you, first of
all - think again, because if you can't sell yourself to sponsors why should
anyone else want to buy you?
You will have to pay to be on the air at first, but why do that without
sponsorship? Pay to work? Not! Don't do what I did, learn from people's
mistakes. Get sponsored FIRST."
On 2-?-2006, Linda put the radio show on a temporary hiatus and moved to
Carrboro, NC along with her sister, Karen (6-6-1952 - 5-12-2011). She dearly
loved it there and said it was an amazing place, and swore it was God's
Garden. She moved there because her sister Karen had two daughters there and
a granddaughter by her second daughter - and would be a grandmother
again by her first daughter in 5-?-2006.
Linda continued to do all she could to help people find their lost loved
ones and was also an advocate for Dumpster Babies
(newborns tossed in the trash) for many years.
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