McCartney's mother, Louise Sara (née Lindner) Eastman, was from a German Jewish family. Her father was Max J. Lindner, founder of the Lindner Company clothing store in Cleveland, Ohio.

While daughter Linda Louise McCartney was studying at the University of Arizona, her mother was killed in the 1962 crash of American Airlines Flight 1 in Jamaica Bay, Queens, New York. 

Because of her mother's death, the young woman Linda grew to hate traveling by air.