Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt was born in Tuscon, Arizona, on 15 July 1946. She began her career singing with a soft-rock group called The Stone Poneys.

Ronstadt’s long-standing relationship with California Governor Jerry Brown scandalised political circles.

At one time Brown proposed to Linda, who is reported to have accepted. But after speculation that the marriage could wreck both their careers, word came out that the nuptials were off. The friendship continued, however.

Linda once posed for a promotional poster dressed only in hot pants and roller skates.

At a New Jersey concert, she swayed so enthusiastically that she popped out of her scoop-necked blouse, much to the delight of her audience and her boyfriend’s political enemies.

Other vote-losers were reckoned to have been her reported comments on sex and drugs. She once said: “I love sex as much as I love music. And I think it’s as hard to do”.

Linda often accompanied Brown to official functions (and horrified Washington matrons by wearing jeans to a reception given by Nancy Kissinger). At another, wearing a dress, she waited until photographers were ready to snap her and Brown, then hitched her skirt to give them a flash of thigh.

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