Liverpool Echo interview with Louise

Just thought you guys would enjoy this:


True story of me and George Aug 22 2002




by Peter Grant, Liverpool Echo






LOUISE Harrison has one of those mid- Atlantic accents that are difficult to place.

But there's no mistaking her roots when she says 'ta ra' and gives a friendly laugh.

And the elder sister of George Harrison, travelling from her home in South Illinois, has been looking forward to returning to the city where she and all the Harrisons - dad Harry, mum Louise, brothers Peter and George and herself were born.

"It's going to be wonderful being part of The Beatle celebrations and opening an exhibition of photographs of George, taken by people who loved him," she says.

But before she was back in the UK, 70-year-old Louise wanted to put the record straight about reports of a rift with her late, much-loved brother.

It was reported in the press that she had opened a Beatle-related B&B and George thought she was cashing in on her Beatle connections.

She insists: "There has been a story that just isn't true that there was this rift between us. Never.

"It was said that I owned a bed and breakfast hotel in that little place called Benton, in South Ilinois.

"I have never owned a B&B in my life.

"There is a B&B called A Hard Day's Nite which was my old home, but not connected to me beyond that.

" In America this story is unheard of but in the UK, it seems to be passed on and passed on. So thanks to the ECHO I can put that straight."

Louise says although she did support the B&B publicity-wise, that was her only connection.

"So when people said after his death that there was a rift - well that was nonsense," she says.

"George always spoke about being positive in life and about being human. And that we were all here on a visit.

"His life was about spirituality and making people feel good."

Louise says she remained in touch with George throughout his life and was with him just two weeks before his death in November last year.

She drove 900 miles from her home in Illinois to Staten Island University Hospital where George was being treated for cancer.

"It was a very, very positive and loving meeting. I felt very much at peace as I drove home after seeing him. I hated seeing him in that shape when he had been such a vital, wonderful man.

She says one of her favourite memories of George, who was a devotee of Hare Krishna, giving her a book about spiritual leader Maharashi Yogi.

"I told him that I had joined the Yogi's organisation and showed him my membership card. George laughed out loud and said, 'so you're my Divine Sister'.

"He still had his humour." Louise was born in 1931 and moved to America in 1954 after marrying Gordon Caldwell. They had two children but divorced in 1982.

During her early years in the US, George and their brother Peter visited her before Beatlemania made such further cosy family reunions impossible.

She smiles at the memory of one such visit to her home in Benton, on September 16, 1963, just months before the Beatles' famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

George loved it in America and it was wonderful to see him. He made a lot of friends," recalls Louise.







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PEACE ON YA!

I've seen this one and I may be wrong, but think that you forgot to post page 2 of the interview.

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Jan. 21, 1966
Reporter ; how on earth did you mannage to keep your wedding so secret?
George ; simple, we didn't tell anyone.

[This Message Has Been Edited By FPSHOT On August 24, 2002 03:42 PM]

Oops, sorry, you're right: here it is!







"He even played at a tiny club here and I remember it was like the kind of British Legion you have in Liverpool.

"George played a few songs and the audience went wild. One man said to the band leader 'hey you've got to book that guy'.

"Again, no-one really realised that they would go on Ed Sullivan and it would never be the same again."

In America the following year George was taken ill with a bad throat and it was Louise who moved into the adjacent room at the Plaza Hotel in New York and nursed him back to fitness.

Louise says George was a man who believed in love of a very definite kind.

"Unconditional love - that's what he said to me. That is what we had. It's what I spread in my work today. I run an organisation called Drop In as opposed to Drop Out. It supports the work of people protecting the environment."

For the past decade, Louise has appeared at Beatle conventions around the world, much to the delight of fans who find her firsthand memories of the Fab Four compulsive listening.

"When I was in America, radio stations would constantly ask for news about George and the boys and I would recall tales they had told me."

Louise says she looks back fondly to the Beatles' early years in Liverpool, when the fan base began to grow beyond the Beatles' dreams.

"That's when the Global Family was born - that's my term for it.

"Mum and dad would answer fan mail, because they knew that John and Paul and Ringo could not go round writing to Beatle people - I never call them 'fans' - and the boys couldn't hug everyone they met.

"So mum and dad would write back and sign letters, 'Love From Mum and Dad Harrison."

Recently Louise met up with Paul McCartney on his Driving Rain Tour.

"He was in such great form with Heather. I had last seen him in Orlando on his world tour in 1990 ."

Louise is looking forward to her sentimental journey home and visiting the house in Arnold Grove, Wavertree, where she grew up.

"I am so looking forward to spending time in Liverpool visiting the old home and opening the photographic tribute exhibition at the Mathew Street Gallery.

"I want to drive past my old school, La Sagesse in Grassendale, I still think about the girls I went to school with back then. All my friends would be in their 70s now. I certainly don't feel 70."

And then Louise's memories return to little brother George.

"In the 80s, I sent George all his letters back to him. I didn't want them to become public property or to fall into the wrong hands.

"I am happy to put an end to any idea of any fall out or rift.

"George was all about love. "He is still about love. I'm in Liverpool to keep that love flowing."







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PEACE ON YA!

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""Some of the happiest days of my life were spent in the studio with George."
Jeff Lynne

Thanks for the article, Angel! I got to meet Louise at Beatlefest; she is so nice. One thing I remember she shared was something their mom used to tell them growing up. She said Louise (sr) always used to say, "Don't look up to anyone, don't look down on anyone. Everyone is deserving of equal respect." George's sis says she thought George no doubt recalled this in his meetings with folks as a Beatle. Beautiful advice, I think.

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"George was the kind of guy who wasn't going to leave until he hugged you for five minutes and told you how much he loved you." ~ Tom Petty

I also thought Louise was nice when I met her at Beatlefest, but the last time I saw her she was hawking photos of George which she was autographing for $10. I found that sad.

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I go back so far, I'm in front of me...

Sorry I don't.

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"George was a giant, a great, great soul, with all of the humanity, all of the wit and humor, all the wisdom, the spirituality, the common sense of a man and compassion for people.
The world is a profoundly emptier place without him."
Bob Dylan

Does any one know how George's brothers are?

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Kasey

I met Louise last week and she was signing anything and everything, not charging for it at all. You could buy a poster of the exhibition for George which I did and got her to sign it, but she was happy to sign anything. She spent time with anyone that wanted her to - she handed out her Harrison hugs too - she said 2 weeks before he died George hugged her and told her to pass it on, she says when she meets a fan now she hugs them and tells them its from George - Paul apparently told her the same in March so really its a Harrison/McCartney hug we get! She was lovely and a very warm person - it was lovely to meet her.

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"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

I met Louise last week and she was signing anything and everything that was put in front of her, she was not charging a penny. You could buy a poster of the exhibition if you wanted, which I did and she signed that for me, which is now waiting to be framed, but she would sign anything. I found her to be a warm and lovely person. She said 2 weeks before George passed on he hugged her and told her to pass it on, she says when she meets a fan now, she hugs them and says its from George. Had me all emotional!! She said Paul said the same to her in March so really its a Harrison/McCartney hug we get! She was great!

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"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

Sorry you got that message twice, it said it hadnt posted oooops!!!!

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"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

That happens sometimes, Cavern Girl. And welcome to Beatlelinks!

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Contributing Editor for Rooftop Sessions
Lennon's Line--A science fiction series about John's descendants--Updated 9/2/02

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">Quote:</font><HR>Originally Posted By Cavern Girl:
she handed out her Harrison hugs too - she said 2 weeks before he died George hugged her and told her to pass it on, she says when she meets a fan now she hugs them and tells them its from George -
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
That is so sweet!

Yes, welcome to Links!!!!


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"One song, 'One of These Days' is about when I met someone on the way to the studio who was a Hare Krishna and we got talking about life-styles and so forth. I'm not a Hare Krishna myself, but I'm very sympathetic."
~ Paul

[This Message Has Been Edited By Hari's Chick On September 03, 2002 07:30 AM]

Welcome, Cavern Girl!

Thank you for the article. It is a heartwarmer. Fraternal devotion -- I love it!

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Then we will remember things we said today. Yeah.
-- Beatles, 1964

Read www.rooftopsessions.com for high caliber Beatles fan fiction.

BB1964

Thanks for the welcome guys!!

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"and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make"

Welcome Cavern Girl & thanks for sharing about last weeks events! Congrats on catching up with Lou!

FT

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"Music always had a transcendental quality inasmuch as it reaches parts of you that you don't expect it to reach. And it can touch you in a way that you can't express. You can think that it hasn't reached you and years later you'll find it coming out." George Harrison

My mom raised me the same way, in regards to having respect for everyone. I think thats what happened when fans were disappointed in things the Beatles did. They forgot they were only human and should not have been put on a pedestal. It happens with today's celebrities too.

Notice in the first page, only 3 Harrison siblings were mentioned. Their brother Harry was inadvertently omitted.

Mid-Atlantic? When I listen to Lou on LouTube, she still has an English accent, a delightful British voice.