Aunt Mimi's birthday

 

Thinking of John's Aunt Mimi today on her birthday.   I hate how Mimi is now historically seen as the mean, old aunt that did not believe in John.    Mimi was the mother figure in John's life and loved him just as much as if she had given birth to him herself.   She was strict, but a lot of people have strict mothers, and they aren't seen as mean.   I will always be thankful for Mimi for raising John and for being so kind to John's fans.  

Dancing with Aunt Mimi

Aunt Mimi's special day

Today is Aunt Mimi's birthday!   So in order to remember her today, I thought I would post this photograph of Mimi with her nephew, John's cat.   

Visiting Aunt Mimi -- my friend

This is a lovely story of a fan that spent the day with Aunt Mimi in 1967    Aunt Mimi was really sweet to the fans that wrote to her or visited her.   She doesn't ever get the credit for her kindness towards John's fans.    I am glad to have found a story like this that shows that she was so much like Mrs. Harrison in her kindness. 

Can you imagine listening to Sgt. Pepper with Aunt Mimi?    I am not sure what the writing was talking about with the stereo.  

Story found in the January 1968 "Lennon Lyric" fan magazine.    

This photo of John, Julian and Mimi would have been taken a few months before this story takes place.

September 16, 1967

I had been writing to Aunt Mimi for a few months, and I had phoned her the night before we met.  She was fabulous, and you could see so much of her in John.   She met us at her front door with smiles and a cheery voice.  I was frightened at first, but Lynne and I followed her into her large living room and made ourselves comfortable.   The first thing I noticed was the beautiful view from her large bay window of the water outside, the boats and the islands across from her. 

 When we finally did get situated, we told Aunt Mimi about meeting Paul and Ringo, about visiting Liverpool – Menlove Avenue, Forthlin road, NEMS, The Beatles Fan club,  Penny Lane, the Art College, and of course the Cavern  this is where she started her story of John, of catching him at the Cavern during his lunch hour from school and pulling him out.  She went on to tell us of many things, and she also showed us a few photos and cards made by John in his school days. 

  From the living room we went into the lounge (I supposed you’d call it that) where she has this enormous photo of John on the wall which Astrid, Stu’s girlfriend, had done of him when he was 18 years old.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Then we went back into the living room and talked some more – about life in general, The Beatles, their records, fans, and about us.  We drank tea, joked, took photos, and had a very good time.  

We had intended to stay just a little while, but time seemed to slip by so very quickly.  I, myself, was enjoying every minute and, through Aunt Mimi, I found myself knowing John so much better – not as a Beatle but as John Lennon, a young man from Liverpool.  And I felt myself so close to him, someone I hadn’t even met but already knew. 

  Aunt Mimi asked us to stay longer, and called the train station for us to find out when the trains left for London.  After that she insisted on finding us something to eat, something which she never does or had done for visiting fans.  I felt out of place with her going out of her way for us, but we helped in the kitchen, chatting on like old friends.  She fixed us John’s favorite of scrambled eggs with cheese on buttered toast.   Drinking more tea, eating and chatting, we sat in the dining room in a world of wonderment with a woman who was just Aunt Mimi when we arrived, but now had become a very deep friend to us. 

 After dinner, we went back into the living room and saw Tim, one of John’s old cats—quite beautiful he was, with long rusty-white fur.  We decided then to go out back and take photos and look at the waterfront.  From there we went back into the lounge where Aunt Mimi put on Sgt. Pepper for us on this enormous stereo John had sent it for her; it was the one on which he, Paul, George and Ringo had recorded their very first record, Love me do.  Lynne sat at one speaker and I at the other, listening and singing along with the music.  Mimi sat watching, occasionally going into he living room or fixing Tim something to eat. 

 Time seemed to be slipping by so quickly, but we had to leave.  Aunt Mimi did tell us that John’s cousin David was down from Scotland and she wanted us to meet him.  He was out at the shore spending the day.  We did have to leave, and I felt like crying because she was so wonderful and so much a friend.  She walked us out to catch the bus, and Lynne took moving pictures of her.  As the bus came, she held on to both my hands and told me to please return next year and visit her.   I f she only knew how much I wanted to…if she only knew how much she meant to me now, as a friend….a woman of dignity, sincerity and Love. 

111 years ago today

John's dear Aunt Mimi was born today 111 years ago!   I am very thankful for Aunt Mimi for raising John and for always being his fan.    She was a strict woman but she loved John as if he were her biological son.

John Lennon returns to Mendips???? No--he goes to Sandbanks to see Mimi!

These two photographs of John and Cynthia were sold this past week on ebay.    The description said that were from 1967 and were taken outside of John's old house, Mendips in Liverpool.    It said that they were taken in the back garden of the house.

So this confuses me.  You might recall my most embarrassing moment of this blog.   When I traveled to Liverpool in 2010 I returned home with the story of a photograph that I saw inside of Paul's childhood home of John Lennon and a girl (looking much like he did in this photo).  According to the guy that was in charge of Paul's home at the time, he told me that the photograph was taken when John visited Liverpool and was spotted by the girl who lived in the McCartney home at the time.  She saw John standing outside of Mendips and ran home to get a camera.    I posted this story without doing any research only to have it quickly debunked my Mark Lewishon.      I was pretty embarrassed and for some reason the story got shared on a Paul is Dead site, and so I get all sorts of strange comments and questions about it.  

So now this photo appears.   And John is supposedly standing outside of Mendips in late 1967, only I am not so sure it is Mendips.   It sort of looks like the house and then it sort of doesn't at the same time.

I need some super sleuths on the case to help me out with this one.


Edited:   See comments section for where this photo was taken!

Keep it in the family

Aunt Mimi with family members she met up with in New Zealand in 1964

John's button

More proof that Aunt Mimi was not the evil woman that films portray her to be.   Fans from all around England would write to Mimi at Mendips and ask for some little trinket that belongs to John.  Mimi would send back something---although who knows if it was really John's or something off an old blouse in her own closet?   But here is a button that was sent back to a fan, who without a doubt was happy to have it in her possession.

A Visit with Aunt Mimi

Before I post this article about Aunt Mimi, I want to take the time to remember a wonderful friend of this blog, Kathy Burns, who passed away last week.  Kathy was a Beatles fan from the beginning up until her death---she was a John girl and ran the Cyn Lennon fan club in the 1960s.  Kathy wrote a great book about her friendship with Aunt Mimi called "The Guitar's All Right as a Hobby, John." Kathy was a very nice woman, and she is going to be missed by everyone who knew her. 

A Visit with Aunt Mimi

By Alanna Nash

Freelance writer Alanna Nash of Louisville, KY, wrote the following account of her 1971 visit to Mimi Smith, John Lennon’s famous aunt. By the way, she says she took no photos that day at Aunt Mimi’s because “I got the impression that she didn’t want any made.” (The truth is, she was pretty intimidating.) Aunt Mimi also was none too pleased with Lennon’s activist lifestyle at that time.

When John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York apartment building on December 8, 1980, his widow, Yoko Ono, made three phone calls.

According to Newsweek magazine, she called “the people that John would have wanted to know.” – his 17-year-old son Julian, from his marriage to Cynthia Powell; his former partner Paul McCartney, and his aunt, Mimi Smith, who reared him from the age of four.

Twelve years ago, as a college student studying in England, I paid Mary Elizabeth Smith—Aunt Mimi—a visit in her Sandbanks, Dorset, home.  During my teen years, when Beatlemania was at its height, I had carried on a long correspondence with George Harrison’s parents.  But my only communication with Aunt Mimi had been a brief postcard she’d sent me some years back in response to my many letters.

Still, I figured that was enough to get me through the door, and I invited a fellow exchange student to go along.  Once we got to Sandbanks, a mechanic at a corner garage pointed the way to Aunt Mimi’s home- a large, $50,000 “holiday cottage” on Poole Harbor that Lennon had originally bought for himself.

“Mrs. Smith?”  I began.  She peered around the door the way women in Hitchcock films do just before they become victims. I quickly dredged up the ancient postcard, and while Mrs. Smith stood there teetering between entry and denial, my friend, a tall, soft-spoken boy with a Beatle haircut and round, Lennon-like spectacles, convinced her we didn’t mean any harm that we were just “into the Beatles.”

Slowly, the door opened, and we got our first good look at her. What struck me most was how much older she looked than in Beatle days, but her resemblance to Lennon was unmistakable—the same straight, narrow nose, the same shaped eyes and face, the same intellectual bearing. “You can only stay a little while, I’m afraid.” Six hours later, as we packed up to leave, I remembered that.

Aunt Mimi told us she lived alone, except for a housekeeper, who had the day off.  She showed us the living room, a cozy room furnished with good pieces that looked as though they’d gotten a lot of use, and excused herself to make a pot of tea.  I remember that the room was filled with books – and with Beatles mementos, displayed tastefully on the walls and shelves.  We were looking at the awards – including a 1963 Billboard magazine plaque for Most Promising Group – when Mrs. Smith returned with the tea and asked us to look over the mantle.  There hung a plaque that an anonymous American fan had sent immortalizing her famous words, “The guitar’s all right as a hobby, John, but you’ll never make a living at it.”

We started out slowly, exchanging pleasantries and asking questions about the Beatles' early days (“the boys had talent, yes, but they had a lot of luck, too. When they first played me ‘Love Me Do’ I didn’t think much of it), but soon, Aunt Mimi was ready to move on to stormier topics.

“I don’t know what all this business between John and Paul is about,” she said of their breakup. But I don’t dare ask John. I did ring Paul about it, and he told me things would straighten up. The boys have been friends for so long. I remember them coming home from school together on their bikes, begging for biscuits. I’m sure they’ll get back together again. This is just a phase they’re passing through.”

If Mrs. Smith was really certain of that, she was, however, disturbed by much of her famous nephew’s behavior.  “I’ve just quit reading the papers now,” she said.  “Apple sends me his records, but I won’t play them.  And I’ve asked my friends not to tell me about them.  That shameful album cover (Two Virgins) and that art show of his,” she said, referring to Lennon’s London gallery exhibit of erotic lithographs.  “He’s been naughty, and the public doesn’t like it, and he’s sorry for it.  Now, he wants sympathy.  That’s why he’s come out with these fantastic stories about an unhappy childhood.”“It’s true that his mother wasn’t there and there was no father around,” she continued, “but my husband and I gave him a wonderful home.  John didn’t buy me these furnishings,” she said with a sweep of a hand, “My husband bought these things.  John and Paul and George wrote songs together sitting on the sofa you’re sitting on now, long before you ever heard of The Beatles. Why, John had a pony when he was a little boy!  He certainly didn’t come from a slum!  None of the boys did!  The Harrisons weren’t as well-off as the other families,  perhaps, but George wasn’t from a slum, either, the way the press had it.  And that’s why you never see photographs of John’s boyhood home!  We certainly weren’t impoverished, the way John’s talking now!”

I asked what she thought had changed him.  Mrs. Smith leaned toward us and whispered as if there were someone else in the house who might hear.  “She’s responsible for all this,” she said.  “Yoko.  She changed him, and I’m sure she and Linda are behind this split with John and Paul.  Cynthia was such a nice girl,” she added, smiling, “When she and John were in art college, she’d come to my house and say, ‘Oh, Mimi, what am I going to do about John?’  She’d sit there until he came home.  She really pursued him.  He’d walk up the road and back until she got tired of waiting and went home.  I think he was afraid of her, actually.”

With that, I said something about what a different man he had become, writing songs like ‘Power to the People’ and staging a “bed in “ for peace.  Mrs. Smith became visibly enraged, “Don’t talk to me of such things!”  she said.  “I know that boy.  He doesn’t know what he’s saying!  It’s all an act.  If there were a revolution, John would be first in the queue!  First to run!  Why, he’s scared to death of things like that! That’s Yoko talking, not John!”

“I had a fan tell me she went up to John and Yoko on the street for an autograph, and Yoko said she could have the signatures, but a far better thing for her to do would be to go up the street and jump in the fountain and feel the water of life rush over her!”  Yoko, Aunt Mimi concluded, was not exactly right in the head.

“Every time John does something bad and gets his picture in the papers, “ she continued, “he rings me up to smooth me over.  See that new color television?  It was a Christmas present, but he had it delivered early.  A big present arrives every time he’s been naughty.”

I remember reading that before Lennon returned his M.B.E. award to the Queen in protest against Britain’s involvement in Biafra and Vietnam, it sat on Aunt Mimi’s T.V. set.  I mentioned that, and Mrs. Smith took us into the music room -  John’s bedroom when he lived there.  She opened the closet, and there, in a haphazard pile on the floor, lay John’s gold records.  Mrs. Smith picked up a frame nearby.  “He sent back the medal, but I still have this,”  she said, handing me the M.B.E. certificate.  John had crossed out the Queen’s signature with red ink and neatly returned the paper to its frame. 

“I usually have a large photograph of John hanging in there,” Mrs. Smith said on the walk back to the living room.  “When he’s a good boy, it’ll go back up again.”  Five years later, in 1976, I recalled that visit to Rick Mitz, my editor at a now-defunct magazine.  We talked about my writing a story about it and decided we’d better first find out if Aunt Mimi was still alive.  Rick dashed off a letter to John at the Dakota and back came the following reply:

Dear R.M.

She’s alive

I’m busy

Luv, John Lennon

A letter from Mimi

Here is a letter Aunt Mimi wrote to a fan after John's death.    I think we often forget how difficult John's death was on Mimi and how far away she must have felt afterwards.    Thank goodness Yoko allowed her to keep her house!

We are family

Some great photos taken in New Zealand on June 23, 1964 when John and his Aunt Mimi visited with members of their family (ones that John didn't know, but he sure smiled nicely for photos with them).  

Family reunion

John's Aunt Mimi traveled with the boys to Australia, not to enjoy the music of the boy she raised and his friends, but to meet up with family members that lived in Eketahuna, New Zealand.   Mimi was with the Beatles at the beginning of the tour, but left for NZ a week earlier and spent time with her cousin Jim  Mathews, whom she had been corresponding with through letters for many, many years. 

On June 23, 1964 Mimi came along with Jim Mathew's daughter Lynda and three other cousins to the St. George hotel to visit with her nephew and his friends.   Mimi was also there to tell him that she was going to stay in New Zealand longer than originally planned and that she would find her own way home to Liverpool.    While this has never been confirmed in any way, I can't help but wonder f the fact that Mimi's boyfriend, who was a former boarder at Mendips, was also living in New Zealand at this time.  Mimi ended up staying in New Zealand for 3-4 more months.

Mimi and the family she stayed with in New Zeland

Anyhow---back to the visit with John's relatives from his mother's side of the family.  John's second cousin, Lynda recently spoke about her visit with her famous cousin

Getting through the crowd was really hard because the police had to take us through and girls were spitting and obviously there was anger that we were getting through and they couldn't. Then we were just sitting in their bedrooms and drinking and talking. And they all came in to see me as they came out of having had a shower," she said.

"He just kissed me and said 'hello, love' straight away. He spoke of seeing my sister and about how Aunt Mimi was getting on. Because Aunt Mimi at that stage had been here with my parents for a week nearly."

Fifty years later, Lynda Mathews finds the experience more surreal than she did then.

"Just holding onto the memories. It's been good to share with other relatives and remember those who aren't here with us as well. Just remember the really good times about it and that the music still goes on and on."

Autograph John signed for Lynda

John's cousin also got to meet the other Beatles!

I already wrote about Lynda's story for this blog, and you can find the story here 

John and Mimi with Mark, Susan and Helen Parker "The Dominion Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library".

John with his 2nd cousins Mark, Susan and Helen Parker "The Dominion Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library".

Mimi and John with Mr. F. Parker "The Dominion Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library".

 

The Guitar's All Right as a hobby, John -- a book review

Mimi Smith at her home, Harbor's Edge in 1976. Photo posted with permission

The author, Kathy Burns with Mimi Smith in 1981.  copyright Kathy Burns and used with permission

The Guitar's All Right  as a Hobby, John -- a book review
by Sara Schmidt

John Lennon's aunt, Mary "Mimi" Smith, has been depicted as many things over the past 50 years in various books and films.  Most of these show Mimi to be the strict guardian of John who did not support him in any way.  But as a fan who loves John, I always knew there was more to Mimi than what I read in the biographies. In Kathy Burn's book, The Guitar's All Right as a Hobby John, she sets out to show a more complete story of Mimi Smith.

Kathy is a first generation Beatles fan who got involved in the Beatles fan club. She started a division of the Beatles fan club in America that was devoted to Cynthia Lennon.  It became very popular and had hundreds of members.  In the midst of the club's popularity, Kathy wrote a letter to John Lennon's Aunt Mimi to ask her if she would like to be a charter member.  This is what was the beginning of a correspondence between the two ladies that lasted Mimi's whole life.  This book is based a lot on the letters between the two and Kathy's personal memories.

The Cyn fan club sadly ended when John got together with Yoko, but Kathy continued to write to Mimi and stayed involved in the fan clubs. In 1973, Kathy and some friends from With a Little Help From my Friends traveled to England. Paul McCartney fans will be interested in reading the humorous stories of personal encounters Kathy and her friends had with Paul and Linda during that time. 

Mimi had invited her to come visit at the home John had bought for her in the town of Poole. It was here that Kathy and Mimi became friends. They would stay up all night smoking and chatting about John, the Beatles, and the gossip of the time. Mimi allowed Kathy to sleep in John's room.  It is interesting to note that when John moved out of Kenwood, John's driver found all of the gold records and awards the Beatles received in the trash. He took them out to Mimi and she decorated her house in Beatles awards, never believing they were worth a small fortune.

Kathy returned to England in 1981 and got to see firsthand the emotional toll John's death had on his aunt.

This book shows that Mimi Smith truly was the mother figure of John Lennon.  Like any mother, she worried about him, supported him, and was outspoken when he did something that was embarrassing, but all of that never stopped her from loving him.

Mimi had a strong opinion and was never afraid to share her honest thoughts. She openly shared what she thought of Cynthia, Linda, Yoko, Beatlefest, author Phillip Norman, Paul, and basically anyone in the Beatles circle. She also enjoyed hearing the gossip and news from the Beatles fans.

Like the other Beatle parents, Mimi was extremely kind to the fans who wrote to her or stopped by her home. She'd often welcome them inside and give them a cup of tea while chatting about John, and when they left, she would give them a small souvenir, like a button off of one of John's shirts.

While John and Mimi did not call each other every week, as some people believe, John was in regular contact with Mimi and wanted her to move to New York.  He sent her photographs of Sean and wrote her letters about all of his milestones and wanted her to be there to see her "grandson."  However, Mimi was content in England, where she lived out her life.

While this book does not answer every question fans might have about Aunt Mimi, it does show a glimpse of what she was really like.  At only $15, it is a book that needs to be added to your summer reading list.

You can purchase this book from Amazon. There are no photos in the book; however, the author has set up a lovely Facebook page that I recommend joining because she has posted many rare photos, mostly of Mimi but also some of Paul McCartney.  

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/49FZ8rT

John's 2nd cousin

This is an interesting story written by John's 2nd cousin, who got to meet her famous relative for the first time when the Beatles visited New Zealand in 1964. Much thanks goes out to the Gilly who first posted this story on her tumblr.








Mimi, John and Jim

John with some more cousins

John and Lynda

Lynda Mathews, John Lennon’s second cousin, who was then a 17-year-old nurse at a private hospital in Masterton, recalls the Beatles’ visit:

The Beatles’ tour was an exciting time for my family, particularly my father, who has stayed in touch with John’s Aunt Mimi.

My grandmother, Harriet Millward, and John’s grandmother, Annie, were sisters. My father, Jim Mathews, was born in Liverpool and came out to New Zealand when he was a baby. My father and John’s Aunt Mimi corresponded with each other for many years and became very close. At the outset we knew that John was in a band, but we didn’t know much about them.

Several days before the Beatles actually touched down in New Zealand, Aunt Mimi arrived by plane in Wellington. My parents and other relatives met her off the plane and drove her up to Masterton, where they stopped for tea at a family friend’s home. It was there that I first met her, before we all travelled back to our farm in Pleckville, near Eketahuna. Mimi remained in New Zealand for several months, long after the Beatles had departed.

I was lucky enough to see two Beatle concerts in Wellington. I saw the first evening show and, after John had given me free tickets, part of the following afternoon session. Because I was John’s second cousin, the local newspaper was able to arrange a meeting with John and the other Beatles while they were in Wellington. Not surprisingly, many other fans had made the same claim - that they were related to the Beatles - but Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ publicity officer, identified the family likeness when he met me. As a consequence, I was able to meet John and the others face to face. I remember sitting on a bed in the Beatles’ hotel room, sipping whiskey and Coke, the Beatles’ favourite tipple at that time. Meanwhile, three Wellington high school girls managed to clamber up a drain pipe in an attempt to meet their idols. While they had to be content with autographs in the corridor, I felt very privileged to have made it into the inner sanctum. It was a funny feeling knowing that because I was related to John, I was doing what thousands of young Kiwi girls would have given and arm and a leg to be able to do.

While I was talking to John, the other Beatles walked in. Paul McCartney was amazed at the family resemblance. When it was time to go, John asked me to take care of Aunt Mimi. You could sense the strong bond and love that John felt for Mimi, the woman who raised him. In fact one of the main reasons the Beatles visited New Zealand was because John knew that his aunt had several relatives out here, and he wanted to give something back to her.

After Mimi returned to England she and my father continued to write to each other until dad died in 1980. My family still keep in touch with the Liverpool connection through John’s cousin, Stanley Parkes. The Beatle legacy has been taken up by the next generation too. In 1987, my daughter Amanda wrote John’s life story for a Queen’s Award, the ultimate award in Girls Brigade.

Aunt Mimi

Photo removed by request of photograher. :(
9/21/10

If you are related to a Beatle in any way, fans will want to take your photograph. That is just a fact of life. If you can't meet a Beatle, why not meet someone who is related to one? I have met several Beatles relatives over the years: Lousie Harrison, Ruth McCartney (and her mom) are two that quickly pop in my mind. One of the people that fans loved to meet was John's Aunt Mimi, the woman who raised him in Liverpool. Here is one fan photo of Mimi and a cousin of John's.