Linda Schein Greenebaum was born in Chicago in 1935 to Elizabeth (Cain) and Ernest Schein. Initially raised in Evanston, Illinois, her family moved to Washington D.C. in the mid-1940s. Though her father was of Jewish decent, and her mother's family Episcopalian, the family adopted Christian Science. The failure to seek medical intervention was a factor in the death of a younger sister, Paula, in 1947, of nephritis. The Scheins were a musical family, and Linda played violin, taking advance training in classical music and performing in orchestras and concerts. She graduated as valedictorian from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1952 and attended Radcliffe College, where she majored in European history. She was awarded the A.B. in 1956. She later earned a Master of Arts in Music Education from Smith College in 1978. After her undergraduate work, she travelled to Germany as a Fulbright Scholar. In 1960 she married Michael Greenebaum and settled in the Chicago suburbs. There, and in Cambridge and Amherst, Massachusetts, she raised the couple's four daughters--Sarah, Katherine, Deborah, and Susan. In these years she also gave music lessons and performed with local groups, sometimes with her children. As her children grew older, she took more steady work as a music instructor. Experiencing marital and emotional difficulties, Greenebaum began a journey through therapy, spirituality, and self-help in the 1970s that would continue over the subsequent decades. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1985. Exploring the Jewish and musical heritage of her paternal family, Greenebaum published a family history, , in 1999. She then converted to Judaism but later drifted from it. A 2008 memoir, , took a frank look at her tumultuous past. She currently lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.