Linda Lawrence


Linda Lawrence is a British person. She is the wife, and sometimes collaborator of folk-rock star Donovan Leitch. Donovan wrote his US #1/UK #2 hit song "Sunshine Superman" for her as well as "Legend of a Girl Child Linda". And according to Donovan, "Linda's in all the songs. 'Sunshine Superman,' 'Hampstead Incident,' 'Young Girl Blues'... Linda's the muse."

Early life

Lawrence's parents were Alec Lawrence, a middle-class contractor, and his wife Violet. She was born Linda Anne Lawrence in 1947 in Windsor, Berkshire.
As a teen, she began a relationship with musician Brian Jones and soon had a child by him, Julian Brian Lawrence. Lawrence and Jones broke up, and shortly after she met Donovan in the green room at Ready Steady Go!. Donovan fell in love, they spent time together, and he asked Linda to marry him. But, beset by the stresses of teenage motherhood, the rock scene, and her breakup with Jones, Lawrence went to southern California, where she had a brief affair with Gram Parsons. A few years later, back in England, she reconnected with Donovan and they were married within a few weeks, on 2 October, 1970.

Marriage, family, and career

Linda Lawrence and Donovan settled in Ireland and raised his stepson, who Donovan and Lawrence later adopted and who changed his name to Julian Leitch. Julian's son Joolz is a musician and has toured with Donovan. Lawrence had two children with Donovan, singer/songwriter and composer Astrella Celeste and Oriole Nebula. Lawrence's granddaughter Coco Sian is an artist and writer.
Lawrence has appeared in three documentary films: You Are What You Eat, Let It Bleed: 40 Years of the Rolling Stones, and Sunshine Superman: The Journey of Donovan. She is co-credited on the 2019 album Eco-Song, which is ascribed to "Donovan & Linda" and dedicated to Greta Thunberg, and has on occasion performed on stage with Donovan. She contributed to Brian Jones: Butterfly in the Park, a 2019 book of Michael Cooper's photographs, and was a founding director of Donovan's label, Donovan Discs Limited. Donovan dedicated his 2016 autobiography The Hurdy Gurdy Man "To She...".