Philip Norman:On 30 July 1991, Linda's father, Lee Eastman, died of a stroke, aged 81. As his New York Times obituary noted, he had effectively created MPL and in 20 years as Paul's lawyer and business adviser had brought huge assets into the company through his knowledge of music publishing. To be sure, his combination of toughness and taste would have made him an excellent manager for the Beatles; one in whose hands their partnership might never have ended in the messy, anticlimactic way it did. Cheated of that prize by Allen Klein, he still hadn't done badly from a client-list which included other major music names like David Bowie, Billy Joel and Andrew Lloyd-Webber as well as 'Bill' de Kooning and most of America's highest-priced modern painters. He left an estate valued at $300 million with a $30 million art collection containing works by Picasso, de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell, and a Rolls-Royce presented to him by his appreciative son-in-law.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
(James, Lee and Paul, 1980's)
Although a tragedy for his second wife, Monique, his four children and three stepchildren, Lee's passing had no repercussions on Paul's legal or business affairs. Long in poor health, he had turned over the family law firm to Linda's brother John, to whom Paul had been close since they'd joined forces to break up the Beatles' partnership in 1971. John Eastman remains his lawyer to this day, paying unstinted tribute to 'a great client who always listens to advice and realises when it makes sense'. Paul and Linda flew to Long Island for Lee's funeral despite the fact that Hurricane Bob was currently devastating America's eastern seaboard. By the time it reached East Hampton, the hurricane had spent much of its force, but still gave the family's mourning a Shakespearian atmosphere with high winds, driving rain and frequent power-cuts, when even the Hamptons' super-rich were forced to live by candlelight and cook on open wood fires. Paul, as usual, rather enjoyed roughing it and, while the electricity was out, wrote several songs on acoustic guitar. One of them, inspired by the dramatic meteorology, he named 'Calico Skies' and put away in his huge bottom drawer. It showed that at 49 he hadn't lost the madrigal simplicity and sweetness that created 'Blackbird' when he was 25.
Howard Sounes:There were financial ramifications for Linda now her father had died. Lee had been an extremely rich man, his wealth mostly in publishing rights and art. Philip Sprayregenestimates the value of his stepfather's estate in the hundreds of millions. So long as Lee's widow survived him, most of this wealth was held in trust for Lee's children and grandchildren, Linda standing to inherit her share as and when Monique Eastman predeceased her. In the meantime, John Eastman was a trustee of the estate, also taking over control of Eastman & Eastman, from the Manhattan office of which he continued to advise Paul. The men were close. Apart from being brothers-in-law, they had worked together since Apple days, and spent their summer holidays together, watching their children grow up. Paul's partner in LIPA, Mark Featherstone-Witty, remarks that he found out early on in his dealings with Paul that, along with George Martin, John Eastman was 'one of the relatively few people Paul wholly respected and would listen to'.
