April 17 will be the 7th anniversary of her passing. She was only 56
when she died.

(www.beatlesnumber9.com)
When Linda McCartney married Paul, she also married his fame and the
resentment of thousands of weepy, love sick girls. Linda was again in
the unwanted spotlight during the Wings years, and this time the media
had even more fodder for the fire—she was an amateur singer and
musician, and perhaps hardly even that. It's only in recent years that
she has been acknowledged for being an excellent photographer, artist,
animal rights activist, businesswoman and cook, all in her own right.

Linda Eastman was born on September 24, 1941 to an upper middle class
family, and raised in Scarsdale, New York. Oddly enough, Yoko Ono also
lived in Scarsdale, sometime after she had first moved to New York,
but only for a short time.

Linda's father was an entertainment lawyer. Linda seemed to have a
happy enough childhood; high school classmates remember her as a
spirited, smiley girl. Her mother died in a plane crash when she was
nineteen, and she retreated to Vermont, then Arizona for a college
education.

At the University of Arizona she majored in art history and picked up
a predilection for photography. While in Arizona she also picked up a
husband, the father of her daughter Heather. Linda's first rushed
marriage is often described as something Linda entered into under the
influence of grief, after her mother died.

After college she moved back to New York, and got a job as a
receptionist at Town and Country magazine. Linda's big photography
break was a chance opportunity to photograph the Rolling Stones on a
yacht. She grabbed her camera, snapped her pictures and suddenly her
pictures were in high demand.

Linda was naturally a good photographer. She watched people with eager
eyes, and took the photo when it was the right moment. Her pictures
created a scene or established a character, and were often considered
beautiful, sometimes moody and gritty.

Linda's photography skills made her a member of the music scene. She
captured The Doors, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob
Dylan, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, and eventually the Beatles. She
became a Rolling Stone magazine photographer.

Linda is said to have had many amorous relationships with the
musicians she photographed. Most notorious, was her relationship with
Jimi Hendrix. In the first interview Paul gave after Linda had passed
away, he was asked about his past rendezvous in relation to Linda's
rendezvous. Paul thought that Linda and him had about the same
experience, though is doubtful that Linda could have ever caught up to
Paul.

She met Paul for the first time in England at a music club called The
Bag O' Nails. Paul noticed her almost immediately. That same year she
took the famous Sergeant Pepper pictures, the ones with Paul and John
shaking hands in an overly exaggerated way. The first picture of Paul
and Linda together was snapped during this photo shoot.

A "dirty weekend," as Linda referred to it, was next, and also
included discussions of books, philosophies, passions. It wasn't long
before Paul was completely smitten. He asked Linda and Heather to live
with him in London, and Linda accepted. Sometime during their
courtship Linda told a friend that she wasn't quite sure about Paul,
she thought she didn't really have a chance at a serious relationship
with such a playboy and celebrity. But Paul always knew Linda was
special—she always returned to his thoughts.

In 1969, Paul and Linda married and George and Patti Boyd were
arrested for possession of marijuana the same day. John and Yoko
married within two weeks of Paul and Linda.

During the infamous Beatles money disputes, Paul wanted Linda's father
to handle their money. The other three Beatles were decidedly against
involving family members, and any other people close to them. It is
also rumored that the rest of the Beatles didn't necessarily trust
Linda and her intentions. Same went for Yoko when she first appeared
on the scene (and oftentimes after too).

When Paul and Linda married, Linda was about four or five months
pregnant with their first daughter Mary. Mary was born around the time
of the Beatles breakup, and Paul has said that was the first time he
ever saw magic.

When Paul's first solo album came out, he decided that he would be the
first to announce the breakup. Almost half of this album is about, or
dedicated to, Linda ("La La La, La La La, the Lovely Linda).

Distraught and stricken over the breakup, Paul hid away with Linda at
his remote farm in Scotland for a while. Their second daughter Stella
was born within two years of Mary, and along with her birth, and a
hard labor for Linda, came Wings. Paul wanted to be with Linda and the
family, and Linda wanted to be with Paul and the family, so Linda
joined the band. Her voice and musical talents were derided, but she
did eventually improve on the piano. Her voice was inconsistent, but
sweet, and sometimes even nearly beautiful.

Amidst all this, Linda and Paul decided to become vegetarians. One
day, they looked out the window at the lambs they were raising, and
the lamb on their plates, and decided to give up meat.

Linda and Paul became big animal rights activists. Linda also enjoyed
cooking, and she wanted to share her food with others, so she wrote a
cook book and started a frozen food line. She made millions, and Paul
often joked that her frozen food line was taking in more money than
the Beatles ever did.

Wings had several different members, and lasted until about 1980, when
Paul was busted for marijuana in Japan. His ten day stay in the prison
would be the longest that Paul and Linda had ever been, and ever was,
separated. Paul is often quoted as saying that in their 29 year
marriage, they were only separated one night—excluding the prison
incident. Of course, this was not the only time that Linda and Paul
had been caught in possession of marijuana.

In the early `70s the McCartney's earned an Academy Award nomination
for the theme of the James Bond Film, "Live and Let Die." In the late
`70s they had their last child, a boy named James.

From there, Linda continued to have hearty meals and lots of family
time. And she always took pictures. Over the years she acquired many
pictures, which eventually turned into a retrospective `60s photo book.

In December of 1995, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 1996
she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PETA for her
animal-rights work.

By 1997, she was in remission, but it wasn't long before the cancer
came back, and headed towards her liver. She died on April 19, 1998 in
her Arizona home, with her family by her side.

Paul pledged to carry on with his late wife's animal rights and
vegetarian campaigns. He has stuck to his word, though he is now a bit
more vocal about land mines because this is his second's wife passion.

Today people remember Linda as a loving person, photographer, mother
and wife. Sometimes, they even drop and ignore her last name.