Linda S. Stein, a New York City real estate agent who helped foster the careers of punk pioneers the Ramones as their co-manager, is dead at sixty-two. Stein was found bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment and police have ruled the death a homicide. As the wife of Sire Records head Seymour Stein in the Seventies, Stein helped the Ramones secure a series of landmark concerts in Britain. She was also heavily entrenched in the music scene at the time, as her husband’s label had artists like Talking Heads, Madonna and the B-52’s on its roster. Elton John considered Stein a dear friend for nearly four decades, saying in a statement yesterday, “I’m absolutely shocked and upset. She’s been a friend for over thirty-seven years and will be greatly missed.” Though the Steins divorced in late Seventies, Linda enjoyed an incredibly successful second career as a real estate broker, selling properties to some of the biggest names in all industries and serving as the model for the character portrayed by Sylvia Miles in Wall Street. Stein is survived by two daughters and a granddaughter.

[Photo: Bayley/Retna]