A photo of Mary McCartney when she worked at The Walton Hospital. Taken from the "Woman" album by Mike
Mary Patricia McCartney (née Mohin) was the mother of musician, author and artiste Paul McCartney, best known for his work in The Beatles and Wings, and photographer and musician Mike McCartney, who worked with The Scaffold. She was a midwife. Mary was Paul's inspiration for the song, "Let It Be".
Born: September 29, 1909, Liverpool, County Borough of Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Death October 31, 1956, Liverpool, County Borough of Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Burial: Yew Tree Roman Catholic Cemetery, West Derby, City of Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Death[]
On 31 October 1956 when the boys woke up to get ready for school, Joan [who is Joan? Should this be their father, Jim?] told them, 'Love, your mum's dead.'
Mary was 47 years old; Paul was 14 and Mike 12.
On 3 November 1956 Mary was buried at Yew Tree Cemetery in Finch Lane, Huyton.
On hearing of his mother's death, Paul cried himself to sleep and prayed for her to come back. He described them as: 'Daft prayers, you know, if you bring her back I'll be very, very good for always. I thought, it just shows how stupid religion is. See, the prayers didn't work when I really needed them.'
But his mother's death caused Paul to find solace in a guitar his father had recently bought for him as his brother Mike recalls. 'It was just after Mother's death that it started. It became an obsession. It took over his whole life. You lose a mother - and you find a guitar.'
Paul was to pay tribute to her in 'Let It Be' with the reference to 'mother Mary' and in 'Lady Madonna' when he sings about 'children at her feet'. Mike McCartney also paid tribute when he placed a photograph of her on the cover of his first solo album.
Paul's first daughter Mary was also named after his mother.
In 1984, during a television interview, Paul discussed his mother's death. 'I was fourteen. It's a very difficult age, fourteen, because you are growing up and you're getting your act together. So it was a tough time to have something as devastating as that happen. I think I probably covered a lot of it up at the time, as you would, a fourteen-year-old boy."
Harry, Bill. "McCartney, Mary Patricia (mother)" The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia. Virgin Books, Copyright 2003
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