Model Linda Tonge

With her long blonde hair and her perfect face, Linda Tonge was probably the only model of the seventies who rivaled Cheryl Tiegs and Kathy Davis for being representative of what was then considered the "All-American" look.

Her modeling career got off to a roaring start, being selected in 1973 as the model of the year by a panel of fashion editors in a TV special. Working through the Ford agency, Ms. Tonge appeared in numerous print ads and fashion editorials - and also in TV commercials.  The picture below is a still from a commercial she did for a beauty cleanser. 

  

Her career took her through the eighties, and at the end of that decade she retired from modeling to become a real estate agent . . . in her home state of Wisconsin.  Below are two business photos of Ms. Tonge from her current profession.

Linda Tonge returned to Wisconsin in part to care for her aging mother, but she also said she wanted her four sons "to have a good sense of Midwestern values that I grew up knowing."  Switching from modeling agency to a real estate agency brought her full circle; once the top model of her time, Ms. Tonge has since become the top real estate agent in her company.

I have a feeling that she could still go back to modeling if she wanted to, though . . . :-)