Entertainment

Remembrances For Linda

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 22, 1998 / 11:32 AM EDT / CBS

Linda McCartney was remembered at a candlelight service with music and poetry Tuesday night in Santa Barbara, Calif., where she spent her last days before breast cancer claimed her life last Friday.

The wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney was an established photographer before she married him. In 1995, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which eventually spread to her liver. Mrs. McCartney, a dedicated vegetarian, was married to Paul for 29 years.

CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman reports that still photographs taken of Mrs. McCartney by her daughter just days before she left on her final trip before her death were released to the public Tuesday. The photos were taken by Mary McCartney at the family farm at Peasmarsh in East Sussex, 50 miles southeast of London.

Paul McCartney plans to issue a tribute album to his late wife, including several songs she wrote and recorded shortly before she died.

Among those paying tribute to her memory Tuesday night in Santa Barbara was Caroline Albertson, who said she met the McCartneys briefly in 1993 during a music tour.

"I went veggie because of her," Albertson said. "She made me aware that animals suffer when she said 'Don't eat anything with a face.' That did it for me."

Lisa Wyatt said she met the couple about 16 years ago in Tucson, Ariz., where Mrs. McCartney's family had a home.

"I was impressed by their humility," Wyatt said. "I was impressed by the way they were a close-knit family."

Mrs. McCartney had spent two weeks with her husband at the home of a friend in the wooded enclave of Hope Ranch overlooking the Pacific Ocean, The Santa Barbara News-Press reported Tuesday.

For the past three decades, Mrs. McCartney sought refuge in Santa Barbara from England's foggy cold, keeping up old friendships, walking along the beach, and horseback riding with her husband and their four children.