We can’t help but smile when we hear “Jo-Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona,” as The Beatles famously wrote in the 1970 anthem “Get Back.”
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But being the curious creatures that we are, we wonder how four British-born musicians even knew about the somewhat removed southwestern U.S. city, especially if none of them had ever been there.
The answer lies in Linda Eastman, the love interest of bandleader Paul McCartney, whom he married in 1969.
An accomplished photographer and musician, Eastman was born in 1941 and raised in Scarsdale, New York, before heading west after high school to study art history at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Her charisma and keen attention to detail launched her into the center of the rock world by the mid-1960s, traveling around the globe photographing the top musicians at the time like Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Aretha Franklin, Janice Joplin, Neil Young, among others.
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Eastman secured an exclusive photo shoot in 1966 with The Rolling Stones aboard a yacht for Town & Country that placed her in the upper echelon of photographers. She also became the first female photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, a striking portrait of Eric Clapton.
It was during this stretch that she photographed The Beatles and met Paul McCartney, and the Arizona connection was sealed.
Paul and Linda McCartney were said to be inseparable during their 29 years together, and Linda’s affection for Tucson no doubt rubbed off on him. The Beatles’ run was winding down by the time the couple wed, and she joined Paul’s new band Wings on keyboard, which played at the Tucson Community Center in June of 1976.
A few years later, the couple bought a sprawling 150-acre ranch in the Tanque Verde area of east Tucson, off East Redington Road. The area is punctuated by rock formations, lots of saguaros and plenty of quiet and solitude. It was the ideal place to hide out and spend time their four children – Heather, Stella, Mary and James – horseback riding, hiking and swimming in the backyard pool.
“I love the Southwest, especially Tucson because my mom loved it there so much,” James McCartney told the Arizona Daily Star in May 2016.
Because of their fame, Tucson became the couple’s happy place, even more so after Linda’s breast cancer diagnosis in 1995. Already a devout vegetarian and author of several books on the subject, even good nutrition couldn’t slow the disease and she passed in April 1998.
The privacy of the ranch allowed family and friends to mourn out of the spotlight. Early reports placed her death in Santa Barbara, but she was surrounded by her loved ones in the Sonoran Desert. Half her ashes were spread about the ranch, the rest taken to the couple’s other vacation property in England.
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Linda McCartney became part of the desert, much like the desert becomes part of us.
Contact “Only in Arizona” columnist Mark Nothaft at [email protected]. Send him the weird and fun facts and places found #OnlyInArizona.
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Source: https://t-tees.com
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