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[Andy Smith]

Lucy O'Donnell(the inspiration for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) has died

Originally The Lucy referred to in the song was a classmate of Julian's at Heath House School named Lucy O'Donnell, born in Weybridge in 1963. Her married name was Lucy Vodden.

In 2009, Julian Lennon learned that Vodden, who lives in Surrey, England, suffered from lupus. Lennon sent her flowers with a personally written card. After learning that Vodden was taking solace from gardening and looking at plants, Lennon sent her gift vouchers for a garden centre. Vodden, who saw Lennon in the intervening years one time at a concert of his, reacted by saying, "It was lovely of Julian." Vodden's death was announced by St Thomas' Hospital on September 28, 2009.

[Euan Buchan]

That's very sad Julian will be sad

[Andy Smith]

The woman who inspired the classic Beatles song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, has died aged 46, a charity said today.



The song featured on the ground-breaking 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

John Lennon's elder son Julian said it was inspired by a picture he drew of his classmate Lucy O'Donnell when they were at a nursery school in Weybridge, Surrey, in 1966.

Julian said he took the picture home and showed it to his father, explaining: 'It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds.'

When Lennon and Paul McCartney's song was subsequently released, it caused controversy because of its hallucinogenic theme and supposed reference to the drug LSD.

The former classmates resumed their friendship in recent months when Lennon heard that Lucy, who was married to Ross Vodden and lived in Surbiton, Surrey, had become ill with lupus.

The autoimmune disease causes the body to attack its own cells, causing immense pain and organ breakdown.

The St Thomas Lupus Trust, which had been supporting Mr and Mrs Vodden during her illness, said she died last Tuesday.

Angie Davidson, campaign director of the trust, said: 'Everyone at the Louise Coote Lupus Unit was dreadfully shocked by the death of Lucy. She was a great supporter of ours and a real fighter.

'It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long.'

The trust said that Lennon and his mother Cynthia were 'shocked and saddened' by Mrs Vodden's death.

A book of condolence will be opened on the trust's website www.lupus.org.uk.

In April, Julian, who now lives in France, sent Mrs Vodden a bouquet of flowers and a personally written card after hearing from his personal assistant, who knows Lucy's sister, that she was chronically ill.

Speaking then about the couple's childhood friendship and the painting, Mrs Vodden said: 'I can imagine him saying, "That's Lucy at school," and his father asking questions like "What's that in the sky?"'

'When I told a couple of friends that Lucy in the sky with diamonds was about me, they said, "No, it can't be, it's to do with LSD." I was too embarrassed to tell them that I didn't know what LSD was.'

Julian said he remembered showing the picture to his father: 'I used to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea for a song about Lucy in the sky with diamonds.'

The image inspired Lennon and McCartney to write one of the most popular Beatles lyrics of them all.

'Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes...'

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Wonderland]

That's sad. I'm so sorry to hear that... I'm a bit at a loss for words...

[freakchic9]

*is listening to her song right now*

[breedofrandy]

That is so sad, she was way to young to die!

[Wonderland]

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes... RIP

[georgeharrisonluver]

oh, thats so sad! RIP Lucy 

[sgt. peppie]

at least she had a pretty good life. she was friends with julian, had a song with her name as the inspiration, and was happily married. RIP lucy o'donnel

[Penny Lane]

RIP, Lucy....

[aaronb]

LONDON (AP) — Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” has died in London. She was 46.

Her death, after a history of lupus, was announced Monday by St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, where she had been treated for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden.

Ms. Vodden’s connection to the Beatles dates back to when she was Lucy O’Donnell, a schoolmate and friend of Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son. Julian, then 4, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was “Lucy in the sky with diamonds.”

At the time John Lennon was gathering material for his contributions to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the landmark album released in 1967. He seized on the image and developed it into what is widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece, with haunting images of “newspaper taxis” and a “girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”

Rock music critics credited the song’s title to a veiled reference to LSD, but John Lennon always said the phrase came from his son.

Ms. Vodden lost touch with Julian Lennon after he left the school following his parents’ divorce, but they were reunited in recent years. After hearing about her disease, Julian Lennon, who lives in France, sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.

Ms. Vodden said she enjoyed her link to the Beatles but was not particularly fond of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”

“I don’t relate to the song, to that type of song,” she told The Associated Press in June. “As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, ‘No, it’s not you, my parents said it’s about drugs.’ And I didn’t know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself.”

[Octie]

That's sad... so young...
And that illness sounds pretty awful too...
RIP

[Euan Buchan]

just for Lucy

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

[BlueMeanie]

This was printed in the Sunday Express:


Lucy In The Sky by Martin Newell

Some half remembered afternoon
Of green and golden dappled light.
When anything seemed possible
And not a ragged cloud in sight
The four pied pipers of the age
Sequestered in a studio long
Cooked up a cornucopia
Which overflowed with English song
And dream-like images of things
It seemed had always just been there

Familiar immediately
Arriving on expectant air
As If the space had been reserved
Until the tunes came sparkling by
Ready for eternity
A Place for Lucy in the sky
Till suddenly, you were aware
Of time, the slow-train, passing on
The river flows, the boat casts off
The turnstile moves
The girl has gone.

[Octie]

^ that's quite beautiful... and touching...

[Pilzkopf]

Well, she's in the sky with diamonds now.

[lucy~(-_-*...]

to bad she's died...man, that woman is verry luky! 'cus the beatles (or john byhimself) are not rowt on everyone a song!
* sorry abut the spelling mistake (this how i rowt without Dictionary)   *

[The Swine]

some lessons?