The Last Rose of Summer

This is a pretty well-known photo of Paul McCartney from the 1966 tour. For years I have wondered about this photograph. It was lumped in with my "Boston" photos because it was published in the Boston newspaper in 1966. But where was it taken? It doesn't look like the concert or backstage. It doesn't appear to be a hotel or an airport. And what is the teenage girl doing there? Is she giving Paul something? I recently found a larger photo that had a caption of with the photo. First I learn that the photo is titled "The Last Rose of summer" and it was taken by Leo Tierny. The caption says " Donna Chapmin 15 years, Newton is shown as she gives Paul McCarty (someone has handwritten "McCartney" over the misspelled name) a rose he gave her tmm when he arrived in Boston from London for his four (marked out) tour of the United States. They are shown at the rear door of the Hotel Sommer (marked out) Somerset." Aug. 18, 1966.

Oh that clears it all up! She is giving him a flower that he gave her? Huh??? Which is it? Did she give the flower to him or did he give the flower to her? And wait....I had always had this with my Boston concert photos and they are saying it was from when the landed in Boston from London? (which they did...) and why do they make it sound like Paul McCartney did a solo tour in 1966?

Well...like I frequently do when I find out a fans name, I googled it. And I found a nice review of a Paul McCartney concert . This actually clears things up, including the actual spelling of the girls name in the photo and not what the newspaper thought her name was. Geesh..newspapers never get things right!

In February of 1964, the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in America, propelling them to a height of fame unknown before their time. I hear that there was nothing like it - the girls I mean. My Godmother, Donna Chapman of Newton, MA, was one of them. Forty years later, she is still reliving the memory of meeting Paul McCartney at Hanscom Air Force Base in Concord, MA, my home town. Her love for Paul was unmatched, so it seems, and one day her uncle who worked at Hanscom surprised her with a chance to meet the handsome young Beatle as he boarded his plane. The encounter lasted only seconds, but the story has been told a thousand times. Out of shock, the only thing she knew to do was take something from the moment that would last a lifetime - and it has: the pink flower from McCartney's lapel that she has kept all these years. A photograph of my Godmother, 15-years-old at the time, reaching for the flower in total awe was printed on the front of several newspapers in the area and headlined on the radio that week. She received hundreds of letters from young girls all over the country begging for every detail of the meeting as if it were the most life-altering event ever to take place. In the world of teenage girls, I'm sure it was.