The Lovely Linda joins Sir Winston

 

What do Linda McCartney and Winston Churchill have in common? They are two of the only Brits to be honored by the USPS with a stamp. Though Linda was born in Scarsdale, at the time of her death she was Lady McCartney, a Subject of the Crown.

Buying these stamps today made me happy. I was so mean about her for so long! She was too plain for Paul. Her speaking voice was so flat. I hated her voice even more when she adopted that fakey English accent. She couldn't sing. She didn't shave her armpits. I knew she'd slept with Warren Beatty and Mick Jagger before she married Paul.

I was too young, too immature, too silly to see that a great 20th century love story was unfolding before my eyes. As the three other Beatles battled drugs and alcohol, Paul avoided all that. (OK, maybe not all that. We know the Macs loved their weed.) Together they raised four children. They were married more than 30 years, seldom spending a night apart. I believe part of why he's with us today, still performing at 84, is because he had Linda when he needed her most.

Of course, he was the bigger star. I realized while watching Stephen Colbert's last show, he's now probably the biggest star in the world. (Always kind of shocking because I forget he's not just mine.) But she wrote cookbooks, was a tireless environmental and animal right activist, and her photos were exhibited all over the world. In watching the documentary on Wings, Man on the Run, I learned that those who worked with her in those days had good things to say about her. Perhaps she took the heat publicly so that he could be forever lovable.

They're like characters from a Victorian novel: She was born into money and prestige, he was a slum kid. They improbably meet and build a celebrated life together. It's through the lad from the lower classes that the black sheep of an upper class American family ends up in the peerage. C'mon, tell me this wouldn't be a great Netflix series.