Born and raised in Holmes County, Judge Linda Randle Anderson was educated in the Holmes County Public Schools.  After receiving her A.A. degree from Holmes Junior College, Judge Anderson moved to Jackson, Mississippi to enroll at Jackson State University.  There she earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education.  From 1977 to 1985 she worked as an elementary music teacher for Jackson Public Schools.

Although Judge Anderson enjoyed enriching the lives of children through music education, she continued to hold on to a childhood dream to become an attorney.  She says that as a child growing up in Holmes County during the 1950s and 60s, she didn’t know of any African American attorneys, and thought her dream may not be attainable.  However, in 1981, she decided to pursue her dream.  She enrolled in the Mississippi College School of Law, while continuing her full-time job as a teacher and balancing her personal responsibilities as the mother of two small children, and the wife of a husband who was enrolled in dental school.
 
Upon completing law school, Judge Anderson went on to serve as a Clerk in the Mississippi Supreme Court (1985 – 1987), Assistant District Attorney in the Seventh Judicial Court District of Hinds County (1987 – 1999), and Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi – United States Department of Justice (1999 – 2006).  Each of the positions Judge Anderson has held, created a well designed path which led to her selection as United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi in 2006.  She is the first African American female U. S. Magistrate Judge in the state of Mississippi.