McCartney Remembered as "Spirited" Girl
by Ilene Nechamkin

Linda Eastman McCartney, whose death at the age of 56 was announced last
Sunday, grew up in Murray Hill, attended Fox Meadow School, and was a
member of Scarsdale High School's class of 1959. The four Eastman
children, three girls and a boy, lived on Dolma Road. Their father, Lee
Eastman, who died in 1991, was a prominent entertainment attorney.
McCartney died of breast cancer, diagnosed two years ago, that
metastasized to the liver.
"There was nothing bad, and nothing incredible or earth-shaking about
her," said Gail Smith, SHS '59, and a Fox Meadow mother of six who sat
next to the former Beatle's wife in senior English. The two girls were
also members of the school's advertising and pep club together. "Linda
loved to sing, loved to perform. She was an easy-going, sweet girl, not
particularly athletic, who always had a smile on her face."
The pep club, Smith explained, was a group of "spirited people" who
publicized football games and organized pep rallies. "In those days,
everyone went to football games," she said. "There was a lot of school
spirit at the high school."
The 1959 Bandersnatch, Scarsdale High School's yearbook, listed
McCartney's activities as the two clubs and the chorus, including the
epithet "strawberry blond." The caption by her photograph said, "yen
for men," and "Shetlandish."
Smith's husband, Joel, SHS '58, remembered often passing McCartney on
his way to school and offering her a ride. "She was a very attractive,
very nice girl," he said.
Many longtime Scarsdale residents - adults now well into middle age who
attended the high school - remember the 1962 death of McCartney's
mother, Louise Eastman, in a plane crash. Linda Leavitt, the Inquirer's
editor-in-chief, recalled being in French class with one of McCartney's
sisters when the news of the disaster was announced.
"Linda's brother, John Eastman, was a college student in California,"
Smith explained, "and her parents never flew out to visit on the same
plane. That's how she went down alone."
"Losing her mother so young gave Linda a sense of what she wanted,"
Smith speculated. "She wanted a lot of kids, a lot of love, and a good
marriage."
"She was basically a product of her milieu," Smith added.
In high school though, McCartney was not so well-centered. Smith
recalled she "always got yelled at in English. I'd sit there thinking,
Linda, you've got to do your work, or you'll get yelled at again."
"I can't remember if she dated anyone," Smith said, "and she didn't go
steady in high school."
Speculation whether McCartney would attend her high school class's 10th
reunion was rampant, Smith recalled. "We all kept asking, is Linda
going to show up? We wondered whether her fame had gone to her head.
She was invited, but she didn't come."
Of course, Linda Eastman married former Beatle Paul McCartney in 1969,
which may have presented scheduling conflicts. "We were kind of stunned
to learn about it," Smith said.
McCartney's friends were also stunned by her metamorphosis into the
slim, long-haired blond portrayed in the media. "She was chunky -
really chunky - in high school," Smith recalled. "When we saw photos of
her after she became famous, she didn't look like the same person."
Curiously, McCartney's changed appearance in the later stages of her
illness, the fuller rounded face and short hair, more closely resembled
the joyous, free-spirited girl her friends had known.
It's now common knowledge that McCartney was an accomplished
photographer, cookbook author, purveyor of organic food and
environmentalist, eschewing chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the
family farm in Sussex, England.
In 1972, McCartney became the keyboard player with her husband's band,
Wings, a career move furthering the couple's reported determination
never to spend a night apart. Initially ridiculed as a mediocre
musician, she eventually gained respect as a steadfast wife, devoted
mother and creative talent.
"She was obviously well involved with her passions," Smith said, "and
seemed to have been in love with her husband."
In a statement released to the press, Paul McCartney said he had lost
"the love of his life," praising her as "the best mother." She is
survived by her four children - a daughter Heather from a previous
marriage, and two daughters, Mary and Stella, and a son, James, by the
former Beatle.
Another dazzling happenstance: Smith also knew Yoko Ono, John Lennon's
widow, who lived on Heathcote Road. "It's a rare bit of Scarsdale
trivia that two Beatle wives once lived here," Smith ventured.
Both Beatles have entered the world's collective consciousness - a
popular personality index sorted by favorite childhood Beatle -
embodying the turmoil and exploration of the '60s. As adults, however,
they were avatars of the joys of marriage and family life, less
revolutionary endeavors.