Lucy In The Sky - the real woman
By Beth Hale
June 15, 2005
Inspiration ... how the British tabloids saw the story. WHEN the Beatles released Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, it was popularly assumed to be a barely concealed reference to LSD.
John Lennon denied a drugs link, claiming the true inspiration was a young girl called Lucy who appeared in a painting by his then four-year-old son, Julian.
Her identity was not revealed at the time but the story can now be told of the little girl who may have been the real Lucy in the Sky.
Lucy Richardson grew up to be a successful movie art director.
But this month she died at the age of 47 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
Last night her sister Mary Foster paid tribute to the popular and talented film lover, and told of the family's connection to the Beatles.
Lucy was a few years older than Julian Lennon when he enrolled at the private Heath House School, in Weybridge, Surrey.
However, because John Lennon and the other Beatles used to visit the Richardson family's antique and jewellery shop, she knew the little boy.
So when he became homesick and unsettled she would be called out of class to sit with him while he drew pictures. One of those pictures was of Lucy.
Mrs Foster said: "One day John Lennon came into the shop and said, 'Hello, Lucy in the sky with diamonds'. We thought it was just John being John."
When a song with that same name appeared on 1967's Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, the Richardson family began to wonder.
And when Lennon announced he had been inspired by his son's picture of a girl called Lucy, the pieces of the emotional jigsaw puzzle came together.
It was in a 1975 interview that Lennon said: "Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
Mrs Foster, who still runs the antiques shop, said: "It was then we realised why he had been calling our Lucy, Lucy in the sky.
"Lucy remembered the times when she would sit with Julian as he drew pictures.
"She was rather chuffed to realise she had inspired the song title, but was very modest about it.
"There was another girl called Lucy who thought the song was about her, but we always knew the song was about our Lucy."
Julian Lennon, now 42, has recollected his drawing in interviews.
"I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age," he said.
As Lucy grew up, contact with the Beatles was lost.
She went on to work her way up in the film industry, becoming an art director on films such as Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush, Chocolat and last year's The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
Lucy, who never married, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 and endured a lumpectomy and gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Last December she was told the cancer was back, and had spread to her bones.
She died on June 1 and was buried in Weybridg.
Her family sprinkled crystals on her grave to symbolise the diamonds of the song she inspired.
http://www.entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,15627577-7484,00.html