Linda McCartney is an American animal rights activist, musician and photographer. Linda married Paul McCartney, founding member of The Beatles, in 1969 and that is how she got her last name that is known to the world. Together they formed Wings, McCartney’s band. Previously, Linda was married to Joseph Melville See Jr. but she divorced him in June 1965 and later took custody of her daughter Heather Louise.
Linda wrote many different vegetarian recipe books promoting vegetarianism, she also became a businesswoman and a specialized photographer. She explained that she didn’t like eating anything with a face. Her book had simple and inspiring recipe. Consequently, the McCartneys became an animal rights activists.
Linda was born, in 1941, and she was brought up in Westchester County, New York. She graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1959. Later she joined University of Arizona, opting for a major in Fine Art.
Linda worked for Town & Country magazine as a receptionist and the only permitted photographer to document The Rolling Stones during a record endorsement party. Then at a concert hall, Fillmore East, Linda became a well-liked groupie. She photographed various artists like, John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and many more. In 1967, she photographed Young and the image appeared in Sugar Mountain: Live of Canterbury House, front cover in 2008.
After she broke up with The Beatles in 1970, the McCartneys recorded an album Ram and Linda was then included in her husband’s group, Wings. The group gathered many Grammy Awards, and eventually became the most unbeaten bands at that time. People from around the world were already familiar with The Beatles and then their new works also entertained listeners.
The rock idol, Eric Clapton was photographed by Linda and she became the first woman to have picture on the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Also, she and Paul (husband) appeared on the cover of this magazine. It was exceedingly commendable that she was the only one to get her photo and a photo by her to be published on the face of the magazine. The McCartney couple in an episode of Bread in 1988 and in Lisa the Vegetarian, one of The Simpsons episode.
Fifty international galleries exhibited her work. In a compiled book, Linda McCartney’s sixties: Portrait of an Era, a collection of her photographs was printed in 1993. The cover of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s single, The Girl is Mine, was photographed by Linda.
In 1995, Linda McCartney was unfortunately diagnosed with breast cancer and as the disease spread to her liver, her condition became much worse. She lived for three years with the illness and died in 1998 in Tuscan, Arizona.
After her death, a six minute cartoon film by Linda and director Oscar Grillo, Wide Prairie, was premiered in August 1998 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The 200th episode of The Simpsons, Trash of the Titans was dedicated to Linda. Then as the millennium started, in 2000, Gary Bakewell and Elizabeth Mitchell played the couplet in The Linda McCartney Story, a television film.
All the photographs that she took, Linda recorded not only what she had to do as a profession but also her family life, as well as her life as a singer and musician. Her work has a warmth and welcoming appeal.
