Aunt Mimi 1981 Interview in the UK:
Mary Elizabeth “Mimi” Smith (née Stanley; April 24, 1906 – December 6, 1991), became a resident trainee nurse at Woolton Convalescent Hospital and then worked as a private secretary. On September 15, 1939, she married George Toogood Smith, who ran her family’s dairy farm and a store in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool.
After her younger sister, Julia Lennon, separated from her husband, Julia and her son, young John Lennon, moved in with a new partner, but Smith contacted Liverpool Social Services and complained that she was sleeping in the same bed as the two adults. Eventually, they convinced Julia to hand over John’s care to the Smiths.
He lived with the Smiths for most of his childhood and remained close to his aunt, even though she was very dismissive of his musical ambitions, girlfriends and wives. She often told the teenage Lennon, “The guitar is all right, John, but you’ll never be able to make a living with it.”
In 1965, John bought him a bungalow in Poole, Dorset, where he lived until his death in 1991. Despite later losing touch with other family members, he kept in close contact with Mimi and phoned her every week until his death in 1980.
The Smiths’ former home in Liverpool was later purchased and kindly donated to The National Trust by Yoko Ono.
