Cynthia Powell was born on September 10, 1939 in Blackpool, Lancashire to Charles Edwin and Lillian Powell. She was raised in a middle-class area called Hoylake, Wirral across the Mersey River from the port city of Liverpool. A budding artist at young age, Cynthia's talent was further developed at the age of twelve when she was accepted to the Junior Art School near the Liverpool College of Art. Despite financial pressures on the family following the death of her father in 1956, Cynthia was able to continue in her artistic pursuits and enrolled in the Liverpool College of Art in 1957 where she met an obnoxious but brilliant fellow student, John Lennon.
Their meeting was as unromantic enough; John supposedly simply tapped her on the shoulder in art class one day and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm John." Cynthia remembers in her autobiography, A Twist of Lennon, that she was instantly drawn to him, even dying her hair blonde after hearing him remark that he like blonder girls that looked like Brigitte Bardot. A simple meeting for such a complicated relationship.
Cynthia and John began dating in the summer of 1958, commencing a turbulent and sometimes abusive relationship. She cites instances in which John would slap her, but also maintained that they intensely loved each other nonetheless. John, she says, was always quick to make up for it (as if that makes it ok...?).
By the time The Beatles were preparing to embark on their transformative stint in Hamburg, Germany, Cynthia and John were inseparable. She accompanied the band (then made up of John, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best) along with Paul's girlfriend, Dot Rhone. Cynthia, in her autobiography, recalls very interesting stories about dingy nights in the clubs of the Reeperbahn.
When The Beatles returned to Liverpool, Cynthia moved into Mendips, John's Aunt Mimi's home, to be closer to John but also because her mother had decided to move to Canada. The Beatles set out yet again to Hamburg for the last time in 1962, upon which she moved out of Mendips and into a flat with Dot. Cynthia, after graduating from the Liverpool College of Art, pursued teaching. In July of 1962, she learned something that would change her life in ways she could hardly imagine-she was pregnant.
John and Cynthia married in that same month, with incredibly fierce opposition from Mimi. Still, her pregnancy could not have come at more hectic time, as The Beatles that next month were finally completed and recording in Abbey Road Studios in London with EMI Records and George Martin. Julian Lennon was born April 8, 1963. John was away on tour.
Cynthia was there for the most frantic of time for The Beatles as they were catapulted into international music stardom. She landed with them at JFK Airpot in February 1964 for the Ed Sullivan Show, tried LSD in 1965 with her husband, and was followed incessantly by fascinated reporters hailing her as "the Beatle woman." Still, more often than not, she was left at home, taking care of her young son essentially as a single mother. Julian grew up without John, who only reconnected with him a few months before John's death in 1980. Cynthia and John divorced in 1968, upon which John (in)famously married Japanese artist Yoko Ono.
Still, Cynthia has remained fairly open about her years as the wife of one of the most legendary music icons and as a witness to the development of the most famous band of all time, writing autobiographies and directing documentaries.
CYNTHIA LENNON 1939-2015
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