Linda Louise Eastman was born on September 24, 1941 to Lee and Louise Lindner Eastman in Scarsdale, New York. She had an older brother, John, and two younger sisters, Laura and Louise. Her father Lee worked as an entertainment lawyer while her mother Louise was a department store heiress socialite. From early childhood, Linda had a great love for horses, nature, and animals; whenever Linda found an injured animal, she would bring it home to nurse it back to health. Whenever her parents threw a party or dinner, Linda would be with the kitchen staff and developed a love of food and cooking. Linda loved music and would often fall asleep while listening to the radio at night. She was briefly taught piano but lost interest. In March of 1962, Linda was living in Arizona attending University of Arizona studying art history when her mother died in the plane crash in Jamaica Bay en route to Yale where John was for a law degree. After her mother's funeral in New York, Linda quickly returned back to Arizona and soon got pregnant by friend Mel See. They got married in June and on December 31, 1962, Linda gave birth to Heather Louise. By late 1964, Mel eventually wanted to move to Africa as an archeologist but Linda refused. Mel went, hoping Linda and Heather would follow but instead received a letter of divorce which came final in June of 1965. On encouragement by a friend, Linda attended a course of photography and fell in love, despite not owning a camera. After attending less than a handful of courses, Linda and Heather moved to New York- first with her father until finding her own place in the city while working as a receptionist at Town & Country magazine. Linda's photography career began when Linda kept an invitation to see the Rolling Stones on the boat and became the only photographer allowed to accompany them. Her work was published in various magazines and became the first female photographer to have her work on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine (and later the only photographer to appear on the cover in 1974).
In 1967, Linda sent her portfolio to Brian Epstein; she loved The Beatles since living in Arizona in 1964 and attended their concert at Shea Stadium in 1965. Brian was impressed with her work, including buying two of her prints of Brian Jones and Keith Moon. He sent her an invitation to attend the press launch of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Two days before the event, Linda was with The Animals and other musicians at Bag O'Nails club where she met Paul McCartney. Linda returned back to New York and didn't hear from Paul until a year later in 1968 when he and John arrived in New York to launch The Beatles Apple company. Linda attended the press conference and hung out with them afterwards until they went back to England. A month later, Paul was in Los Angeles when he called Linda to invite her over. She came and they spent the weekend together. By September of 1968, Paul invited Linda to live with him in London, her daughter Heather joined them in October when they flew to New York. On March 12, 1969, Paul and Linda got married. In August of that year, they welcomed Mary Anna. During the pressures of The Beatles' problems with finding a manager between Allen Klein and Linda's father and brother, the Apple company, and personal problems with each other, Paul and his family would go to his other home in Scotland to retreat. By April of 1970, The Beatles officially broke up. Paul released his first solo album with Linda collaborating. In 1971, they released their second solo album, decided to form the band Wings, and welcomed Stella Nina in September. They started to tour universities and colleges in England before extending the tour to venues in Europe. Paul and Linda welcomed James Louis in September of 1977. Linda's photography career took a backseat although her work was featured on their music albums until 1976 when she released her first book and a few years later started doing exhibitions. In the early 1970s, Paul and Linda became vegetarians and in 1989, Linda published her first vegetarian cookbook. It led to a vegetarian frozen food line and two more cookbooks (including one published posthumously). Linda continued to be an active music partner with Paul, playing keyboards, tambourine, and backing vocals as well as a songwriter. In 1994, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer and received treatment in England and New York. In March of 1998, it was revealed that the cancer spread to her liver and made her last public appearance at her daughter Stella's fashion show. In April of 1998, Paul, Linda, and their children went to Arizona for vacation. Linda and Paul rode horses but by the next day, Linda was tired and went to bed where she was sleeping restless before going into a coma. On the early hours of April 17, 1998, Linda died with Paul holding her with their children at her side. Linda was cremated and they returned to England to scatter her ashes as news of her death became public.
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