Linda was born to Richard and Celestine Griner in Washington DC. Her mother was from the British West Indies (Kingston Jamaica) and her father was from Georgia.Linda inherited her vocal talent from her mother and her tenacity from her father who was a great fighter Dick Griner. Who was a light heavy weight champion of the south. She started performing at 8yrs of age singing gospel and traveling summers in small churches throughout the east coast. Linda went to school in DC and attended Howard University in the Nations Capital. She met her first manager Angelo Benedetti who immediately recognized her a talent night at the club he was managing called the Ko Ko Club. He enrolled her into Ophelia Modeling School in Washington DC which was a great finishing school for Linda. Mr. Bernadette was responsible for Linda putting together a successful nightclub act that took Linda worldwide to some of the finest clubs and venues in the world. Having the advantage of a nightclub act with 27 piece band charts she said was the ultimate. It enabled her to work around the country and tour worldwide with many bands and clubs, which was a great start for her career. She landed a job at the Howard Theater in Washington DC, which was like the Apollo in New York equivalent. Smokey Robinson discoverd Linda at the Howard Theater. After seeing her perfrom he immediately called Berry Gory to put a contract together. Smokey was vice president of Motown at the time so his word was as good as a signed contract. But when he took her to Detroit she was too young to sign a contractt. So he enrolled her back into school at Woodrow Wilson high school in Detroit. She completed school then signed with Motown and the rest is history. Linda has done albums for Columbia records, Dot records (Paramount pictures music division), Mercury records, Brunswick records, Itchibon records, and Motor City Records in London. She also did motion picture soundtracks for Dot records and National General pictures with famed composer John Williams. Linda has her own independent label Second Chances Over the last several years, Linda developed a passion for selling real estate in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her enthusiasm has rewarded her with another extremely successful career. However, as we all know, her love of music and sharing it with her fans never escaped her. Great news for all of us! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.