Coeur d'Alene rededicates restored Cpl. Linda Huff Memorial Rose Garden

The restored Cpl. Linda Huff Memorial Rose Garden brought Coeur d’Alene back to a place where memory and mourning meet. Set behind the Idaho Transportation Department facility at 602 W. Prairie Ave., just steps from the site where Huff was killed, the garden was rededicated at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 17, with a reception afterward at the Idaho State Police District 1 office at 615 W. Wilbur Ave.

Huff was ambushed outside that office on the night of June 17, 1998, after she had finished paperwork and was walking back to her patrol car. Idaho State Police materials say the attacker came intending to murder a law enforcement officer. Court records say Huff was struck by at least eleven rounds, but she returned fire and wounded her attacker before she died. She was 33 years old, had served with the Idaho State Police for 14 months and became the first female law enforcement officer in Idaho to die in the line of duty.

For those who knew her, the rededication was about more than the facts of her death. Paul Berger, commander of Idaho State Police District 1, said the memorial is “a promise that we will remember,” and remembered Huff as “a daughter and a friend.” Former Coeur d’Alene police chief Wayne Longo also spoke of her as far more than a name on a plaque, a reminder that the city’s public-safety history is still carried by the people who served beside her and the neighbors who continue to honor her.

The restoration itself became a community effort. Scouting America Troop 222 of Coeur d’Alene led the work, volunteering time and labor to clean, revitalize and preserve the site, while area businesses donated materials. The garden was originally established by friends and coworkers after Huff’s death, and it now includes a stone bearing her name. The Idaho State Police District 1 office in Coeur d’Alene also bears her name, keeping her legacy visible in the daily life of the agency and the city.

Huff’s story has long carried statewide weight. In 2005, she received the first Idaho Law Enforcement and Firefighting Medal of Honor posthumously. She was survived by her husband, Chad Huff, who later became Payette County sheriff, and three children. The rededicated rose garden gives Kootenai County a place to remember not only how she died, but why her service still matters.