Linda McCartney

Biography

Linda Louise, Lady McCartney (née Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, cookbook author, and activist. She was the keyboardist and harmony vocalist in the band Wings that also featured her husband, Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Linda began a career as a photographer, landing with Town & Country, where she soon gained assignments to photograph various musicians and entertainers. By the late 1960s, she was a regular fixture at the Fillmore East, a New York concert venue, where she became the unofficial house photographer capturing numerous performances at the legendary club, and was the first woman to have a photograph on the cover of the influential music magazine Rolling Stone. Her photographs were displayed in galleries and museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, and were collected in several books. Linda had been learning to play keyboards from her husband, and after the 1970 breakup of the Beatles, Paul and Linda recorded the album Ram together, and they formed the band Wings in 1971. She continued to play alongside Paul following Wings' breakup in 1981 up until The New World Tour in 1993. She was an animal rights activist. Linda's Kitchen: Simple and Inspiring Recipes for Meatless Meals, the second of her two vegetarian cookbooks, was nominated for a James Beard Award in 1996. She also founded the vegetarian Linda McCartney Foods company with her husband. In 1995, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died from the disease three years later, at the age of 56.