Linda McCartney's Real Name: Linda Louise Eastman

Quick answer: Linda McCartney was born Linda Louise Eastman. She was born on September 24, 1941. Britannica gives the birthplace as Scarsdale, New York; Biography.com says New York City. Eastman was her birth surname; McCartney was the name she took after marrying Paul McCartney of the Beatles, a band that also included John Lennon, in 1969. She was a photographer, a vegetarian cookbook author, and the keyboardist and harmony singer in the band Wings. She died in Tucson, Arizona, on April 17, 1998, at 56 (Britannica; Biography.com).

Real name and early life

Britannica gives her name in full as Linda Louise McCartney, née Linda Louise Eastman. Biography.com says she "was born Linda Louise Eastman on September 24, 1941, in New York City." The Library of Congress files her as "McCartney, Linda," with the variant "Eastman, Linda."

She was the second child of Lee Eastman, an entertainment lawyer, and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman. Britannica says she graduated from Scarsdale High School, studied art history at the University of Arizona, and took up photography there. After leaving the university she married Joseph Melville See Jr.; they had a daughter, Heather, and divorced in 1965. She later moved to New York with her daughter and built a career photographing rock musicians, work that included an assignment with the Beatles.

Career highlights

She married Paul McCartney in March 1969. When he formed Wings, she played keyboards and sang harmony vocals in the band. She was also a committed vegetarian and animal-rights advocate, writing cookbooks and later launching a line of prepared vegetarian meals. A book of her photographs, Open Wide, was published after her death, and the frozen-food line she created continued to be sold in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Illness and death

Britannica and Biography.com say she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and that the disease later spread to her liver. She spent her final days with her family at their ranch in Arizona and died on April 17, 1998, in Tucson, at 56. Biography.com notes that the family first said she had died in Santa Barbara, California, so they could have time to grieve privately.

Name notes for searchers

Linda Louise Eastman was her name at birth. Linda McCartney was her married name, and she was also known as Lady McCartney. Catalogs cross-reference Eastman and McCartney. Sources disagree on whether she was born in Scarsdale or more broadly in New York City.