Mimi Smith
Encyclopedia
Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Smith (née Stanley) (24 April 1903 – 6 December 1991) was the maternal aunt and parental guardian of the English musician John Lennon
. Mimi was born in Liverpool, England
and was the oldest of five daughters. She became a resident trainee nurse at the Woolton Convalescent Hospital, and later worked as a private secretary. On 15 September 1939, she married George Smith
, who ran his family's dairy farm and a shop in Woolton
; a suburb of Liverpool.
After Mimi's younger sister, Julia Lennon
, separated from her husband, she and her son (Lennon) moved in with a new partner, but Mimi contacted Liverpool's Social Services
and complained about little John sleeping in the same bed as the two adults. Julia was eventually persuaded to hand the care of Lennon over to the Smiths. Lennon lived with them for most of his childhood, and remained close to her, even though she was highly dismissive of his musical ambitions, his girlfriends, and wives.
She often told the teenage Lennon that "The guitar's all right John, but you'll never make a living out of it". Despite later losing touch with other family members, Lennon kept in close contact and telephoned Mimi every week until his death in 1980. Lennon bought her a bungalow
in Poole
, Dorset, where she lived until her death in 1991. The Smiths' house in Liverpool was later donated to the The National Trust
.
around 1875, to Welsh parents. Annie's first two children, a boy and a girl, died shortly after birth, and she had five additional children: Mary, known as 'Mimi'; Elizabeth 'Mater' (1903–1991); Anne 'Nanny' (1911–1988); Julia 'Judy' (1914–1958); and Harriet 'Harrie' (1916–1972).
After the birth of his daughters, Stanley retired from sailing and found a job with the Liverpool and Glasgow Tug Salvage Company as an insurance investigator
. He moved his family to the Liverpool suburb of Allerton, where they lived in a small terraced house
at 9 Newcastle Road. According to Beatles biographer Bob Spitz
, Mimi assumed a matriarchal role in the Stanley house to help her mother, and dressed "as if she was on her way to a weekly garden club meeting". Lennon later stated that Mimi based everything on decorum, honesty, and a black-and-white
attitude: "Either you were good enough or you were not." Lennon's school friend, Pete Shotton, later commented that she "had a very strong sense of what was right or wrong". Annie Stanley died in 1945, so Mimi accepted the responsibility of caring for her father, with help from her younger sister, Julia.
When other girls were thinking of marriage, Mimi talked of challenges and adventures that arose from her attitude of "stubborn independence", and often said that she never wanted to get married because she hated the idea of being "tied to the kitchen sink". She became a resident trainee nurse at the Woolton Convalescent Hospital and later worked as a private secretary for Ernest Vickers, who was an industrial magnate
with businesses in Manchester
and Liverpool. She had long-term plans to buy a house in a "respected suburb" of Liverpool one day so that she could entertain the "scholars and dignitaries of Liverpool society".
In early 1932 she met George Smith, who lived across from the hospital where she worked, and to which he delivered milk every morning. Smith and his brother, Frank Smith, operated a dairy farm and a shop in Woolton that had been in the Smith family for four generations. Smith started seriously courting Mimi, but was constantly thwarted by her indifference and her father's interference. Stanley would only allow the couple to sit in the back room at Newcastle Road when he or his wife were in the front room, and before it grew too late he would burst into the back room and loudly order Smith home. The courtship lasted almost seven years, but Smith grew tired of waiting. After delivering milk to the hospital one morning he gave her an ultimatum that she must marry him, "or nothing at all!"
Mimi and Smith were finally married on 15 September 1939. They bought a semi-detached
house called Mendips
—named after the range of hills
—at 251 Menlove Avenue, in a middle class area of Liverpool. Menlove Avenue suffered extensive damage during World War II, and Mimi often had to throw a wet blanket on incendiary bombs that fell in their garden. During the war the government took over the Smiths' farmland for war work, and Smith was called up for service, but was discharged three years later, and worked in an aircraft factory in Speke
until the end of the war. Smith later left the milk trade and started a small bookmaker's business, which led Mimi to complain later that he was a compulsive gambler, and that he had lost most of their money.
on 3 December 1938, and on 9 October 1940, the couple's first and only child was born. Mimi phoned the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital that evening and was told that Julia had given birth to a boy. According to Mimi, she went straight to the hospital during the middle of an air raid, and was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel. She ran, as she later recalled, "as fast as my legs could carry me". When a parachute-borne landmine fell outside the hospital, she later said, "My sister [Julia] stayed in bed, and they put the baby [Lennon] under the bed. They wanted me to go into the basement, but I wouldn't. I ran all the way back to Newcastle Road to tell father [Stanley] the news. 'Get under the shelter,' the wardens were shouting. 'Oh, be quiet,' I told them." The story about the air-raid has since been repudiated; there was no attack that night. The previous raid had been on 21–22 September, and the next was on 16 October, when the areas of Walton and Everton were badly hit.
After Julia separated from her husband, she and the infant Lennon moved in with her new partner, John Albert "Bobby" Dykins, but Mimi twice contacted Liverpool's Social Services
and complained about Lennon sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins. Julia was eventually persuaded to hand the care of Lennon over to the Smiths, who had no children of their own. Mimi later confided to a relative that although she had never wanted children, she had "always wanted John". In July 1946, Alf Lennon visited the Smiths and took Lennon to Blackpool
, ostensibly for a long holiday, but with the secret intention of emigrating to New Zealand with him. Julia went to Blackpool and took Lennon back to her house, but a few weeks later she handed him back over to Mimi. Lennon then lived continuously at Mendips, in the smallest bedroom above the front door. Although she was a caring guardian, she was also known for being very strict, compared to the more relaxed influence of her husband and Lennon's mother. Family friends described Mimi as stubborn, impatient, and unforgiving, but also said that she had a strong sense of humour. On many occasions when she criticised Lennon, he would respond with a joke, and the two of them would be "rolling around, laughing together".
Mimi bought volumes of short stories for Lennon, and her husband taught Lennon to read at the age of five by reading aloud the headlines of the Liverpool Echo
. Every summer, from the age of nine until he was 15, she sent Lennon alone on a 10-hour bus journey to visit his Aunt Mater and cousin Stanley Parkes at their home near Loch Meadie in Durness
, Scotland. Mimi also took her charge to a garden party in Calderstones Park
every year, where a Salvation Army band played. She remembered Lennon pulling her by the hand to get there, saying, "Hurry up Mimi – we’re going to be late". Strawberry Field
, in Beaconsfield Road, was the name of a Salvation Army house that Lennon would later immortalise in the song, "Strawberry Fields Forever
". She would later say: "John loved his uncle George [Smith]. I felt quite left out of that. They'd go off together, just leaving me a bar of chocolate and a note saying, 'Have a happy day'".
Smith died of a liver haemorrhage in 1955, at the age of 52, so Mimi rented a spare room at Mendips out to medical students for extra income, even though he had left his wife £2000 in his will
. Three years after Smith's death, Lennon's mother, Julia, was killed on Menlove Avenue—shortly after a visit to her sister—when she was knocked down by a car driven by a drunk, off-duty police officer: PC Eric Clague. Mimi did not witness the accident, but cried hysterically over Julia's body until the ambulance arrived. Clague was acquitted of all charges, given a reprimand, and a short suspension from duty. When Mimi heard the verdict she shouted "Murderer!" at Clague.
After Lennon became famous, she berated him for speaking in a Liverpudlian accent, but Lennon replied: "That's showbusiness, they want me to speak more Liverpool". Despite the talk of Lennon being working class—as were Paul McCartney
, George Harrison
and Ringo Starr
—he later refuted the idea by saying, "I was a nice clean-cut suburban boy, and in the class system I was about a half an inch in a higher class than Paul, George and Ringo, who lived in subsidised government houses. We owned our own house, had our own garden. They didn't have anything like that".
Although Mimi later claimed that she had bought Lennon's first guitar, it was actually his mother, after Lennon had pestered her incessantly for weeks. Julia insisted that the £5 instrument had to be delivered to her house and not to her sister's. The two sisters first saw Lennon perform with The Quarrymen
at the Woolton St. Peter's Church fête on the afternoon of 6 July 1957. Julia (who knew that her son would be performing) heard music coming from the field behind the church (now the site of the Bishop Martin School), and pulled Mimi along with her to listen. Lennon saw his aunt coming through the crowd and comically changed the words of a song to feature her name: "Oh-oh, here comes Mimi down the aisle now..." Mimi related two versions of what she thought that day after seeing Lennon on stage: "I was horrified to behold John in front of a microphone", and "as pleased as Punch to see him up there".
With help from Mimi and Lennon's headmaster, Lennon was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art
because his aunt insisted that Lennon should have some sort of academic qualifications, even though Lennon was beginning to show an interest in music. She opposed the idea of Lennon forming a band and disapproved of McCartney because he was, as she said, "working class", calling him "John's little friend". When she later met Harrison, she "hated him" because of his thick Liverpudlian accent and Teddy Boy
clothes. Lennon and McCartney often met at Mendips to write songs, and rehearsed in the glass-panelled porch at the front of the house, which was the only place she would let them play. She once asked Parkes to take her to The Cavern to see Lennon play, but when she descended into the damp, dark cellar, full of screaming teenagers, she shouted to Parkes, "Get him [Lennon] out, get him out! Tell him to come off the stage! He can't stay here.... We'll have to stop this!" The Beatles' first residency in Hamburg
also exasperated her because she wanted Lennon to continue his studies, but he placated her by greatly exaggerating the sum of money he would earn.
She hoped Lennon would become bored with music and often commented on it, saying, "The guitar's all right John, but you'll never make a living out of it". In later years, Lennon would jokingly remind her of the comment, and had a silver plaque made which was engraved with her words. When later asked about the plaque, she would say that Lennon had it made for her husband, and not her.
", and was particularly unpleasant or cold towards her. In the summer of 1962, Cynthia discovered that she was pregnant with Lennon's child, so Lennon proposed marriage. When he told his aunt, she threatened never to speak to him again to stop him from going through with it. Lennon and Cynthia were married on 23 August, at the Mount Pleasant Register office
in Liverpool, although Mimi did not attend. Lennon had wanted his half-sisters, cousins, and aunts to be there, but Mimi had contacted them beforehand and advised them against attending. After the Lennons had been living at Brian Epstein's
flat for a few months (and after hearing about Cynthia's near-miscarriage
), she offered to rent the Mendips downstairs back room to them.
Before Christmas in 1972, she met the then-divorced Cynthia at the funeral of Mimi's sister, Harriet, in Liverpool. Mimi sternly criticised Cynthia for divorcing Lennon—and letting him start a relationship with Ono—by saying she should have stopped him from making "an idiot of himself". Even though Mimi was described as domineering, Ono later compared herself to her when describing her own relationship with Lennon. After Lennon's death, Ono and Sean Lennon
visited Mimi in Liverpool, where she was staying at her sister Anne's house because of a heart condition. She said, "Sean is like John in every way—looks and manner—and he has got John's sense of humour. As long as he keeps away from music, he will be all right".
Ono later bought Mendips and donated it to the The National Trust. It was renovated to make it look as it was in the 1950s when Lennon lived there, and Ono paid a visit before it was opened to the public. Lennon's cousin, Michael Cadwallader, had advised the National Trust on how the house looked when the Smiths lived there.
Mimi had relatives in Eketahuna
, New Zealand because her maternal aunt, Harriet Millward, had married and moved there. Mimi had exchanged letters with her relatives over the years, so Lennon arranged for a tour of New Zealand in 1964. Lennon's success caused problems for her and she was constantly pestered by fans at Mendips, so she sold the house for £6,000 in 1965; Lennon bought her a £25,000 bungalow by the beach called Harbour's Edge in Sandbanks, at 126 Panorama Road, Poole, Dorset, which was her home for the rest of her life. The Lennons and their son visited her there in the summer of 1965, which was the last time all three of them visited the house together. Lennon later gave his aunt his MBE
medal, but later asked for it back so that he could return it in protest.
Lennon gave Mimi an allowance of £30 per week, but when she found out that his wife's mother was being given the same amount, she phoned the Lennon's house and said, "What has she [Cynthia's mother] done to deserve anything? Tell John, when you speak to him, that I am very, very annoyed", before slamming down the phone. Lennon moved to New York in 1971, and never returned to England again. Despite losing touch with several family members, he kept in close contact with her and telephoned her every week. On 5 December 1980, three days before Lennon was murdered, he called her to say he was homesick and was planning a trip back to England. After Lennon's death, Mimi was furious to find out that he had never transferred the ownership of the house over to her, which meant that Ono owned the house, and could sell it at any time.
. During the night, other carers were present. On the day of her death, Mimi collapsed on the toilet, so Varcoe helped her to the bed, where Mimi started Cheyne-Stoking
. According to Varcoe, her last words were, "Hello, John".
Although the oldest of the Stanley girls, Mimi was the last of them to die. Cynthia, Sean and Ono attended her funeral on 12 December 1991: McCartney, Harrison, and Starr all sent floral arrangements. Despite the animosity between Cynthia and Mimi, Varcoe remembered Cynthia crying throughout the whole funeral, and said that Mimi had always spoken positively about her. Mimi was cremated at the Poole Crematorium and the reception was at the Harbour Heights Hotel. The whereabouts of her ashes is unknown. Ono put Mimi's house up for sale on the same day as the cremation, but it was demolished in 1994, so a four-bedroomed house could be built on the site.
(1979), John and Yoko: A Love Story
(1985), In His Life: The John Lennon Story
(2000), and by actress Kristin Scott Thomas
in Nowhere Boy
(2010). McCartney disagreed with the director of Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Wood
, about the original script portrayal of Mimi, saying: "Aunt Mimi was not cruel. She was mock strict, but she was a good heart who loved John madly." Taking McCartney's advice, Taylor-Wood agreed to change the script.
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
. Mimi was born in Liverpool, England
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and was the oldest of five daughters. She became a resident trainee nurse at the Woolton Convalescent Hospital, and later worked as a private secretary. On 15 September 1939, she married George Smith
George Smith (John Lennon)
George Toogood Smith was the maternal uncle, through marriage, of John Lennon. Smith operated his family's two dairy farms and a retail outlet with his brother, Frank Smith, in the village of Woolton, Liverpool...
, who ran his family's dairy farm and a shop in Woolton
Woolton
Woolton is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England and a Liverpool City Council Ward. It is located at the south of the city, bordered by Gateacre, Hunts Cross, Allerton and Halewood. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 14,836.-History:...
; a suburb of Liverpool.
After Mimi's younger sister, Julia Lennon
Julia Lennon
Julia Lennon was the mother of English musician John Lennon, who was born during her marriage to Alfred Lennon. After complaints to Liverpool's Social Services by her eldest sister, Mimi Smith , she handed over the care of her son to her sister...
, separated from her husband, she and her son (Lennon) moved in with a new partner, but Mimi contacted Liverpool's Social Services
Liverpool City Council
Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Joe Anderson.-Domain:...
and complained about little John sleeping in the same bed as the two adults. Julia was eventually persuaded to hand the care of Lennon over to the Smiths. Lennon lived with them for most of his childhood, and remained close to her, even though she was highly dismissive of his musical ambitions, his girlfriends, and wives.
She often told the teenage Lennon that "The guitar's all right John, but you'll never make a living out of it". Despite later losing touch with other family members, Lennon kept in close contact and telephoned Mimi every week until his death in 1980. Lennon bought her a bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
in Poole
Poole
Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...
, Dorset, where she lived until her death in 1991. The Smiths' house in Liverpool was later donated to the The National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
.
The Stanley family
According to Lennon, the Stanley family once owned the whole of Woolton village. Mimi's father, George Stanley, was born in the Everton district of Liverpool in 1874, and became a sailor. Her mother, Annie Jane Millward, was born in ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
around 1875, to Welsh parents. Annie's first two children, a boy and a girl, died shortly after birth, and she had five additional children: Mary, known as 'Mimi'; Elizabeth 'Mater' (1903–1991); Anne 'Nanny' (1911–1988); Julia 'Judy' (1914–1958); and Harriet 'Harrie' (1916–1972).
After the birth of his daughters, Stanley retired from sailing and found a job with the Liverpool and Glasgow Tug Salvage Company as an insurance investigator
Insurance Investigations
Insurance investigations are usually conducted to investigate matters pertaining to insurance claims that are suspicious or otherwise in doubt for some reason. Investigators in this field have differing specialities and backgrounds...
. He moved his family to the Liverpool suburb of Allerton, where they lived in a small terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
at 9 Newcastle Road. According to Beatles biographer Bob Spitz
Bob Spitz
Bob Spitz is an American journalist and author best known for his celebrity biographies, including the New York Times best seller The Beatles: The Biography....
, Mimi assumed a matriarchal role in the Stanley house to help her mother, and dressed "as if she was on her way to a weekly garden club meeting". Lennon later stated that Mimi based everything on decorum, honesty, and a black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
attitude: "Either you were good enough or you were not." Lennon's school friend, Pete Shotton, later commented that she "had a very strong sense of what was right or wrong". Annie Stanley died in 1945, so Mimi accepted the responsibility of caring for her father, with help from her younger sister, Julia.
When other girls were thinking of marriage, Mimi talked of challenges and adventures that arose from her attitude of "stubborn independence", and often said that she never wanted to get married because she hated the idea of being "tied to the kitchen sink". She became a resident trainee nurse at the Woolton Convalescent Hospital and later worked as a private secretary for Ernest Vickers, who was an industrial magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
with businesses in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Liverpool. She had long-term plans to buy a house in a "respected suburb" of Liverpool one day so that she could entertain the "scholars and dignitaries of Liverpool society".
Marriage and Mendips
Mimi and Smith were finally married on 15 September 1939. They bought a semi-detached
Semi-detached
Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...
house called Mendips
251 Menlove Avenue
251 Menlove Avenue, named "Mendips", was the childhood home of John Lennon, singer and songwriter with the Beatles, and is now preserved by the National Trust....
—named after the range of hills
Mendip Hills
The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon Valley to the north...
—at 251 Menlove Avenue, in a middle class area of Liverpool. Menlove Avenue suffered extensive damage during World War II, and Mimi often had to throw a wet blanket on incendiary bombs that fell in their garden. During the war the government took over the Smiths' farmland for war work, and Smith was called up for service, but was discharged three years later, and worked in an aircraft factory in Speke
Speke
Speke is an area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, close to the boundaries of the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley. It is south east of the city centre and to the west of the town of Widnes....
until the end of the war. Smith later left the milk trade and started a small bookmaker's business, which led Mimi to complain later that he was a compulsive gambler, and that he had lost most of their money.
Mimi and John Lennon
Julia Stanley married Alfred 'Alf' LennonAlfred Lennon
Alfred "Alf" Lennon was the father of English musician John Lennon. He spent many years in an orphanage—with his sister, Edith—after his father died. He was known as being very witty and musical throughout his life—he sang and played the banjo—but not as being very dependable...
on 3 December 1938, and on 9 October 1940, the couple's first and only child was born. Mimi phoned the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital that evening and was told that Julia had given birth to a boy. According to Mimi, she went straight to the hospital during the middle of an air raid, and was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel. She ran, as she later recalled, "as fast as my legs could carry me". When a parachute-borne landmine fell outside the hospital, she later said, "My sister [Julia] stayed in bed, and they put the baby [Lennon] under the bed. They wanted me to go into the basement, but I wouldn't. I ran all the way back to Newcastle Road to tell father [Stanley] the news. 'Get under the shelter,' the wardens were shouting. 'Oh, be quiet,' I told them." The story about the air-raid has since been repudiated; there was no attack that night. The previous raid had been on 21–22 September, and the next was on 16 October, when the areas of Walton and Everton were badly hit.
After Julia separated from her husband, she and the infant Lennon moved in with her new partner, John Albert "Bobby" Dykins, but Mimi twice contacted Liverpool's Social Services
Child welfare
Child protection is used to describe a set of usually government-run services designed to protect children and young people who are underage and to encourage family stability...
and complained about Lennon sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins. Julia was eventually persuaded to hand the care of Lennon over to the Smiths, who had no children of their own. Mimi later confided to a relative that although she had never wanted children, she had "always wanted John". In July 1946, Alf Lennon visited the Smiths and took Lennon to Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, ostensibly for a long holiday, but with the secret intention of emigrating to New Zealand with him. Julia went to Blackpool and took Lennon back to her house, but a few weeks later she handed him back over to Mimi. Lennon then lived continuously at Mendips, in the smallest bedroom above the front door. Although she was a caring guardian, she was also known for being very strict, compared to the more relaxed influence of her husband and Lennon's mother. Family friends described Mimi as stubborn, impatient, and unforgiving, but also said that she had a strong sense of humour. On many occasions when she criticised Lennon, he would respond with a joke, and the two of them would be "rolling around, laughing together".
Mimi bought volumes of short stories for Lennon, and her husband taught Lennon to read at the age of five by reading aloud the headlines of the Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
The Liverpool Echo is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Saturday, and is Liverpool's evening newspaper while its sister paper, the Liverpool Daily Post, is the morning paper...
. Every summer, from the age of nine until he was 15, she sent Lennon alone on a 10-hour bus journey to visit his Aunt Mater and cousin Stanley Parkes at their home near Loch Meadie in Durness
Durness
Durness is a huge but remote parish in the northwestern Highlands of Scotland, encompassing all the land between the Moine to the East and the Gualin to the West...
, Scotland. Mimi also took her charge to a garden party in Calderstones Park
Calderstones Park
- External links :* * * * *...
every year, where a Salvation Army band played. She remembered Lennon pulling her by the hand to get there, saying, "Hurry up Mimi – we’re going to be late". Strawberry Field
Strawberry Field
Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children's home in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool, England.The earliest reference to 'Strawberry Field' dates from 1870. In 1912 it was transferred to a wealthy merchant whose widow sold the estate to the Salvation Army in 1934. It opened on 7 July 1936...
, in Beaconsfield Road, was the name of a Salvation Army house that Lennon would later immortalise in the song, "Strawberry Fields Forever
Strawberry Fields Forever
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and attributed to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. It was inspired by Lennon's memories of playing in the garden of a Salvation Army house named "Strawberry Field" near his childhood home."Strawberry Fields...
". She would later say: "John loved his uncle George [Smith]. I felt quite left out of that. They'd go off together, just leaving me a bar of chocolate and a note saying, 'Have a happy day'".
Smith died of a liver haemorrhage in 1955, at the age of 52, so Mimi rented a spare room at Mendips out to medical students for extra income, even though he had left his wife £2000 in his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. Three years after Smith's death, Lennon's mother, Julia, was killed on Menlove Avenue—shortly after a visit to her sister—when she was knocked down by a car driven by a drunk, off-duty police officer: PC Eric Clague. Mimi did not witness the accident, but cried hysterically over Julia's body until the ambulance arrived. Clague was acquitted of all charges, given a reprimand, and a short suspension from duty. When Mimi heard the verdict she shouted "Murderer!" at Clague.
After Lennon became famous, she berated him for speaking in a Liverpudlian accent, but Lennon replied: "That's showbusiness, they want me to speak more Liverpool". Despite the talk of Lennon being working class—as were Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
—he later refuted the idea by saying, "I was a nice clean-cut suburban boy, and in the class system I was about a half an inch in a higher class than Paul, George and Ringo, who lived in subsidised government houses. We owned our own house, had our own garden. They didn't have anything like that".
Lennon and music
The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen are a British skiffle and rock and roll group, initially formed in Liverpool in 1956, that eventually evolved into The Beatles in 1960...
at the Woolton St. Peter's Church fête on the afternoon of 6 July 1957. Julia (who knew that her son would be performing) heard music coming from the field behind the church (now the site of the Bishop Martin School), and pulled Mimi along with her to listen. Lennon saw his aunt coming through the crowd and comically changed the words of a song to feature her name: "Oh-oh, here comes Mimi down the aisle now..." Mimi related two versions of what she thought that day after seeing Lennon on stage: "I was horrified to behold John in front of a microphone", and "as pleased as Punch to see him up there".
With help from Mimi and Lennon's headmaster, Lennon was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art
Liverpool College of Art
Liverpool College of Art is located at 68 Hope Street, in Liverpool, England. It is a Grade II listed building.The building is currently owned by Liverpool John Moores University housing its School of Social Science....
because his aunt insisted that Lennon should have some sort of academic qualifications, even though Lennon was beginning to show an interest in music. She opposed the idea of Lennon forming a band and disapproved of McCartney because he was, as she said, "working class", calling him "John's little friend". When she later met Harrison, she "hated him" because of his thick Liverpudlian accent and Teddy Boy
Teddy Boy
The British Teddy Boy subculture is typified by young men wearing clothes that were partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, styles which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after World War II...
clothes. Lennon and McCartney often met at Mendips to write songs, and rehearsed in the glass-panelled porch at the front of the house, which was the only place she would let them play. She once asked Parkes to take her to The Cavern to see Lennon play, but when she descended into the damp, dark cellar, full of screaming teenagers, she shouted to Parkes, "Get him [Lennon] out, get him out! Tell him to come off the stage! He can't stay here.... We'll have to stop this!" The Beatles' first residency in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
also exasperated her because she wanted Lennon to continue his studies, but he placated her by greatly exaggerating the sum of money he would earn.
She hoped Lennon would become bored with music and often commented on it, saying, "The guitar's all right John, but you'll never make a living out of it". In later years, Lennon would jokingly remind her of the comment, and had a silver plaque made which was engraved with her words. When later asked about the plaque, she would say that Lennon had it made for her husband, and not her.
Lennon's relationships
Mimi's attitude to Lennon's partners was often frosty, disdainful, or sarcastic. She constantly criticised Lennon about his relationships. Mimi once referred to Cynthia, Lennon's first wife, as "a gangster's mollGun moll
Gun moll is a term that refers to the female companion of a male professional criminal. In some contexts, gun moll more specifically suggests that the woman handles a firearm....
", and was particularly unpleasant or cold towards her. In the summer of 1962, Cynthia discovered that she was pregnant with Lennon's child, so Lennon proposed marriage. When he told his aunt, she threatened never to speak to him again to stop him from going through with it. Lennon and Cynthia were married on 23 August, at the Mount Pleasant Register office
Register office
A register office is a British term for a civil registry, a government office and depository where births, deaths and marriages are officially recorded and where you can get officially married, without a religious ceremony...
in Liverpool, although Mimi did not attend. Lennon had wanted his half-sisters, cousins, and aunts to be there, but Mimi had contacted them beforehand and advised them against attending. After the Lennons had been living at Brian Epstein's
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
flat for a few months (and after hearing about Cynthia's near-miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
), she offered to rent the Mendips downstairs back room to them.
Before Christmas in 1972, she met the then-divorced Cynthia at the funeral of Mimi's sister, Harriet, in Liverpool. Mimi sternly criticised Cynthia for divorcing Lennon—and letting him start a relationship with Ono—by saying she should have stopped him from making "an idiot of himself". Even though Mimi was described as domineering, Ono later compared herself to her when describing her own relationship with Lennon. After Lennon's death, Ono and Sean Lennon
Sean Lennon
is an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor. He is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His godfather is Sir Elton John.-Early life and education:...
visited Mimi in Liverpool, where she was staying at her sister Anne's house because of a heart condition. She said, "Sean is like John in every way—looks and manner—and he has got John's sense of humour. As long as he keeps away from music, he will be all right".
Ono later bought Mendips and donated it to the The National Trust. It was renovated to make it look as it was in the 1950s when Lennon lived there, and Ono paid a visit before it was opened to the public. Lennon's cousin, Michael Cadwallader, had advised the National Trust on how the house looked when the Smiths lived there.
Later years
Eketahuna
Eketahuna is a small rural service town, the most southerly in the Tararua District in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand, but is considered to be in northern Wairarapa. It was called Mellenskov, but was renamed soon after its founding.The town is located at the foot of...
, New Zealand because her maternal aunt, Harriet Millward, had married and moved there. Mimi had exchanged letters with her relatives over the years, so Lennon arranged for a tour of New Zealand in 1964. Lennon's success caused problems for her and she was constantly pestered by fans at Mendips, so she sold the house for £6,000 in 1965; Lennon bought her a £25,000 bungalow by the beach called Harbour's Edge in Sandbanks, at 126 Panorama Road, Poole, Dorset, which was her home for the rest of her life. The Lennons and their son visited her there in the summer of 1965, which was the last time all three of them visited the house together. Lennon later gave his aunt his MBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
medal, but later asked for it back so that he could return it in protest.
Lennon gave Mimi an allowance of £30 per week, but when she found out that his wife's mother was being given the same amount, she phoned the Lennon's house and said, "What has she [Cynthia's mother] done to deserve anything? Tell John, when you speak to him, that I am very, very annoyed", before slamming down the phone. Lennon moved to New York in 1971, and never returned to England again. Despite losing touch with several family members, he kept in close contact with her and telephoned her every week. On 5 December 1980, three days before Lennon was murdered, he called her to say he was homesick and was planning a trip back to England. After Lennon's death, Mimi was furious to find out that he had never transferred the ownership of the house over to her, which meant that Ono owned the house, and could sell it at any time.
Death
Mimi died on 6 December 1991, at the age of 88, while being cared for at home by Lynne Varcoe, an auxiliary nurseNursing in the United Kingdom
Nursing in the United Kingdom has a long history, but in its current form probably dates back to the era of Florence Nightingale, who initiated schools of nursing in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries...
. During the night, other carers were present. On the day of her death, Mimi collapsed on the toilet, so Varcoe helped her to the bed, where Mimi started Cheyne-Stoking
Cheyne-Stokes respiration
Cheyne-Stokes respiration is an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by progressively deeper and sometimes faster breathing, followed by a gradual decrease that results in a temporary stop in breathing called an apnea. The pattern repeats, with each cycle usually taking 30 seconds to 2...
. According to Varcoe, her last words were, "Hello, John".
Although the oldest of the Stanley girls, Mimi was the last of them to die. Cynthia, Sean and Ono attended her funeral on 12 December 1991: McCartney, Harrison, and Starr all sent floral arrangements. Despite the animosity between Cynthia and Mimi, Varcoe remembered Cynthia crying throughout the whole funeral, and said that Mimi had always spoken positively about her. Mimi was cremated at the Poole Crematorium and the reception was at the Harbour Heights Hotel. The whereabouts of her ashes is unknown. Ono put Mimi's house up for sale on the same day as the cremation, but it was demolished in 1994, so a four-bedroomed house could be built on the site.
Portrayals on film
Mimi was portrayed on film in Birth of The BeatlesBirth of the Beatles
Birth of The Beatles is a 1979 biopic motion picture, produced by Dick Clark's company and directed by Richard Marquand. The film was released into cinemas worldwide except in parts of the United States, where it was shown as a TV movie.-The film:The film focuses on the early history of 1960s rock...
(1979), John and Yoko: A Love Story
John and Yoko: A Love Story
John and Yoko: A Love Story is a 1985 television drama that chronicles the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, beginning just before they met in 1966 and concluding with Lennon's assassination in 1980. The movie was made with the co-operation with Yoko Ono, who controlled the song rights...
(1985), In His Life: The John Lennon Story
In His Life: The John Lennon Story
In His Life: The John Lennon Story is a television film produced in 2000 by Michael O'Hara Productions and NBC Studios . The film was written by Michael O'Hara and directed by David Carson.-Plot:...
(2000), and by actress Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
in Nowhere Boy
Nowhere Boy
Nowhere Boy is a 2009 British biopic about John Lennon's adolescence, his relationships with his guardian aunt and his birth mother, the creation of his first band, the Quarrymen, and its evolution into the Beatles. The film is based on a biography written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird...
(2010). McCartney disagreed with the director of Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Wood
Sam Taylor-Wood
Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon...
, about the original script portrayal of Mimi, saying: "Aunt Mimi was not cruel. She was mock strict, but she was a good heart who loved John madly." Taking McCartney's advice, Taylor-Wood agreed to change the script.