Cynthia Lennon Cynthia Lennon Cynthia Lillian Lennon ("née" Powell; 10 September 1939 – 1 April 2015) was the first wife of English musician John Lennon and mother of Julian Lennon. She grew up in the middle-class section of Hoylake, on the Wirral Peninsula in North West England. At the age of 12, she was accepted into the Junior Art School, and was later enrolled in the Liverpool College of Art. John Lennon also attended the college; a meeting with Powell in a calligraphy class led to their relationship. When John was performing in Hamburg with the Beatles, she rented his bedroom from
John Lennon second version, told by McCartney, is that in late 1965, Ono was in London compiling original musical scores for a book John Cage was working on, "Notations", but McCartney declined to give her any of his own manuscripts for the book, suggesting that Lennon might oblige. When asked, Lennon gave Ono the original handwritten lyrics to "The Word". Ono began visiting and telephoning Lennon's home and, when his wife asked him for an explanation, Lennon explained that Ono was only trying to obtain money for her "avant-garde bullshit". While his wife was on holiday in Greece in May 1968, Lennon