One year ago: Lucy Vodden

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Lucy Vodden, the inspiration behind the Beatles’ song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ died one year ago at age 46 after a long battle with lupus.

Vodden’s connection to the Beatles dates to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son. Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds.’

The elder Lennon took that line and formed a song that is popularly thought to be a veiled reference to LSD, given the psychedelic imagery of the song and the acronym one could make out of its title.

Although she enjoyed her connection to the Beatles, Vodden told the Associated Press in June 2009 that she wasn’t particularly fond of the song.

‘I don’t relate to the song, to that type of song,’ she said. ‘As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, ‘No, it’s not you; my parents said it’s about drugs.’ And I didn’t know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself.’

For more on the real-life ‘Lucy in the Sky,’ read Lucy Vodden’s obituary that appeared in The Times.

-- Michael Farr