(Entered October 12, 2000)

Thanks to IK! West Coast Correspondent, Harry Bluebond for Times article.

Thanks to Richard Joly of Ono Web for Yahoo story.



Louis Sahagun and Joe Mozingo, reporting for the Los Angeles Times wrote that on October 9 about 100 people gathered on Vine Street where 60 birthday candles surrounded John's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The birthday party was organized by the Alliance for Survival which is headed up by Jerry Rubin.

Among the crowd were 15-year-old Caitlin O'Conner and Jennifer Maurice. "When I was in kindergarten my mother insisted that I listen to the Rolling Stones," recalled O'Conner. "But I refused and got into the Beatles. For me, Lennon's the greatest of them all."

Then there were Karen Garcia, 46, and her daughter Jennifer, 24, who have not missed a major Lennon commemoration anywhere in the nation since he was assassinated two decades ago. On the night of Feb. 9, 1964, Garcia was 10 years old and pacing the floor of her home in a Santa Ana trailer park in feverish anticipation of watching the Beatles on the "Ed Sullivan Show."

She had promised her parents extra household chores for three months in return for permission to watch the program on a school night. When the Beatles finally appeared and kicked into "Love me Do," she recalled, "I thought John Lennon was so absolutely cute I burst into tears."

Sixteen years later, on December 8, 1980, she was watching Monday night football when Howard Cosell interrupted the game to announce that John Lennon had been shot. "I just collapsed in tears," she said. "My 4-year-old hugged me and said, 'Don't worry, Mommy, John's in heaven now,' and I completely lost it."

The day reminded rock drummer Jim Keltner, who played on some of John's first solo albums, of how much he misses the wit and bite of Lennon's work almost as much as the man.

"John could be very forceful and emotional about his music in the studio," he said in a telephone interview. "But, then, all the great guys are picky about their songs." Keltner went on that John "also had an extraordinary sense of rhythm; as a drummer I pay attention to that. For me, playing with John was the easiest thing in the world; his songs practically played themselves. But he told me many times that Ringo Starr was his favorite drummer of all."

Martin Lewis, a writer and Beatles historian, said Lennon's lure has little to do with nostalgia. As host of annual Beatles fan festivals in Los Angeles and New York, Lewis said 75% of the crowd is under 25 years old.

"Ultimately, Lennon evoked the noblest part of the human spirit: the part that yearns for the world to be a better place," he said. "That's what resonated, especially with young people."

A Yahoo news story put the number of birthday celebrants at 200.

The gathered crowd sang "Happy Birthday" twice - once for John and once for his son, Sean, who turned 25 on the same day that his father would have turned 60.

Jerry Rubin (Alliance for Survival) said, ``It's time for world leaders and everybody to understand what John Lennon was trying to say.''

Related Stories:
IK! Archive - John Gets His Hollywood Star in 1988

Memorial Remembrance Planned for December 8

Full Yahoo Story from October 10