Lijn was born in New York City, four months after her mother and grandmother had arrived by boat from Antwerp. Both Lijn’s parents, Helena Nuischa Kustanovich and Herman Segall (cousin of Zvi Segal and an active Revisionist Zionist), were from Russian Jewish families, and the family lived at 697 West End Ave. Manhattan with her younger brother Dennis Leroy Segall (who is the founder of CRYS, Coalition for the Reform of Youth Services, and currently resides in Tampa, Florida). At the age of 9, her parents separated and Lijn was sent to a progressive boarding school, Hickory Ridge (which was subsequently burnt down), before attending a more conventional school in Pennsylvania. During Lijn’s sophomore year, her father moved to Geneva and took Lijn and her brother with him. Lijn’s mother decided to move to Lugano to be near her children. Lijn lived with her mother and went to school in Lugano, becoming fluent in French and Italian. She left school a year and a half before graduating, precipitated by a life-changing encounter with Nina Thoeren, her former classmate, whose mother Manina Tischler was a Surrealist painter.
