Mimi Smith

George and Annie had five daughters: Mary Elizabeth, known as 'Mimi' (1906 to 1991), born on 24 April 1906, several months before her parents married; Elizabeth Jane 'Mater' (1908 to 1976); Annie Georgina 'Nanny' (1911–1988); Julia 'Judy' (1914–1958); and Harriet 'Harrie' (1916–1972). After the birth of his daughters, Stanley stopped going to sea and got a job with the Liverpool and Glasgow Tug Salvage Company as an insurance investigator. He moved his family to the Liverpool suburb of Allerton, where they lived in a small terraced house at 9 Newcastle Road. According to Beatles biographer Bob Spitz, Mimi assumed a matriarchal role in the Stanley house to help her mother, and dressed "as if she was on her way to a weekly garden club meeting". Friends of Lennon later stated that his aunt based everything on decorum, honesty, and a black-and-white attitude: "Either you were good enough or you were not." Lennon's school friend, Pete Shotton, later commented that she "had a very strong sense of what was right or wrong". Annie Stanley died in 1941, so Mimi accepted the responsibility of caring for her father, with help from her younger sister, Julia.

In early 1932 she met George Smith, who lived across from the hospital where she worked, and to which he delivered milk every morning. Smith and his brother, Frank Smith, operated a dairy farm and a shop in Woolton that had been in the Smith family for four generations. Smith started courting Mimi, but was constantly thwarted by her indifference and her father's interference. Stanley would only allow the couple to sit in the back room at Newcastle Road when he or his wife were in the front room, and before it grew too late he would burst into the back room and loudly order Smith home. The courtship lasted almost seven years, but Smith grew tired of waiting. After delivering milk to the hospital one morning he gave her an ultimatum that she must marry him, "or nothing at all!"

Julia Stanley married Alfred ("Alf" or "Fred") Lennon on 3 December 1938; on 9 October 1940, the couple's first and only child was born. Smith phoned the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital that evening and was told that Julia had given birth to a boy. According to Smith, she went straight to the hospital during the middle of an air raid, and was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel. As she later recalled, she ran "as fast as my legs could carry me". A parachute-borne landmine fell outside the hospital, and Mimi later said "My sister [Julia] stayed in bed, and they put the baby [Lennon] under the bed. They wanted me to go into the basement, but I wouldn't. I ran all the way back to Newcastle Road to tell father [Stanley] the news. 'Get under the shelter,' the wardens were shouting. 'Oh, be quiet,' I told them." The story about the air raid has since been refuted, as there was no attack that night. The previous raid had been on 21–22 September, and the next was on 16 October, when the areas of Walton and Everton were badly hit.

Mimi and Smith were finally married on 15 September 1939. They bought a semi-detached house called Mendips – named after the range of hills – at 251 Menlove Avenue, in a middle-class area of Liverpool. Menlove Avenue suffered extensive damage during World War II, and Mimi said that she often had to throw a wet blanket on incendiary bombs that fell in the garden. During the war, the government took over the Smiths' farmland for war work, and Smith was called up for service. However, he was discharged three years later and worked in an aircraft factory in Speke until the end of the war. Smith later left the milk trade and started a small bookmaker's business, which led Mimi to complain later that he was a compulsive gambler and had lost most of their money.

After Julia separated from her husband, she and the infant Lennon moved in with her new partner, John Albert "Bobby" Dykins,. However, Smith twice contacted Liverpool's Social Services and complained about John sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins. Julia was eventually persuaded to hand over the care of John to the Smiths, who had no children of their own. Smith later confided to a relative that although she had never wanted children, she had "always wanted John". In July 1946, Alf Lennon visited the Smiths and took Lennon to Blackpool, ostensibly for a long holiday, but with the secret intention of emigrating to New Zealand with him. Julia went to Blackpool and took John back to her house, but a few weeks later she handed him back to Smith. John then lived continuously at Mendips in the smallest bedroom, which was located above the front door. Although she was a caring guardian, Smith was also known for being very strict, compared to the more relaxed influence of her husband and John's mother. Family friends described Smith as stubborn, impatient and unforgiving, but also said that she had a strong sense of humour. On many occasions when she criticised John, he would respond with a joke and the two of them would be "rolling around, laughing together".

Smith's husband George died of a liver haemorrhage in June 1955 leaving £2,000 in his will (equivalent to £52,900 in 2020). The Smiths had rented their two first-floor bedrooms to students for extra income since 1947, while the Smiths slept in the former dining room; on the ground floor, at the back of the house. Some of the students who lodged there included John Cavill (from September 1949 until June 1950). Cavill played piano, but as the house had none he bought a guitar; admitting he knew almost nothing about chords: "My father had a violin and I had learned to play pizzicato on it, so when I got the guitar I played tunes on the strings, and John [Lennon] did the same". Michael Fishwick also lodged there (from October 1951 until December 1958), as did Keith Capron (September 1956 to July 1959). Both Capron and Cavill were studying veterinary science at the University of Liverpool, with Fishwick studying biochemistry.

Smith's attitude to John's partners was often frosty, disdainful or sarcastic and she constantly criticised him about his relationships. She once referred to Cynthia, who became Lennon's first wife, as "a gangster's moll", and was particularly unpleasant or cold towards her. In summer 1962, Cynthia discovered that she was pregnant with Lennon's child, so he proposed marriage. When he told his aunt, she threatened never to speak to him again to stop him from going through with it. Nevertheless, John and Cynthia were married on 23 August, at the Mount Pleasant Register office in Liverpool, although Smith did not attend. Lennon had wanted his half-sisters, cousins and aunts to be there, but Smith had contacted them beforehand and advised them against attending. After the Lennons had been living at Brian Epstein's flat for a few months (and after hearing about Cynthia's near-miscarriage), Mimi offered to rent her downstairs back room to them.

Smith had relatives in Eketahuna, New Zealand, because her maternal aunt, Harriet Millward, had married and moved there. Smith had exchanged letters with her relatives over the years, so Lennon arranged for a tour of New Zealand in 1964. The success of the Beatles caused problems for her and she was constantly pestered by fans at 'Mendips', so she sold the house for £6,000 in 1965 (equivalent to £117,000 in 2020); Lennon bought her a £25,000 bungalow (equivalent to £487,600 in 2020) by the beach called Harbour's Edge in Sandbanks, at 126 Panorama Road, Poole, Dorset, which was her home for the rest of her life. The Lennons and their son visited her there in the summer of 1965, which was the last time all three of them visited the house together. Lennon later gave his aunt his MBE medal, but later asked for it back so that he could return it in protest.

Lennon gave Smith an allowance of £30 per week (equivalent to £700 in 2020), but when she found out that his wife's mother was being given the same amount, she phoned the Lennons' house and said, "What has she [Cynthia's mother] done to deserve anything? Tell John, when you speak to him, that I am very, very annoyed", before slamming down the phone. Lennon moved to New York in 1971, and never returned to England again. Despite losing touch with several family members, he kept in close contact with her and telephoned her every week. In a 1981 television interview with Southern Television reporter Christopher Peacock, Mimi stated that she spoke with John by phone the night before he was murdered. He called her to say he was homesick and was planning a trip back to England. After Lennon's death, Smith was furious to find out that he had never transferred the ownership of the house over to her, which meant that Ono owned the house, and could sell it at any time.

Before Christmas 1972, Smith met the then-divorced Cynthia at the funeral of Smith's sister, Harriet, in Liverpool. Smith sternly criticised Cynthia for divorcing Lennon – and letting him start a relationship with Yoko Ono – by saying she should have stopped him from making "an idiot of himself". Even though Smith was described as domineering, Ono later compared herself to her when describing her own relationship with Lennon. Smith later admitted that Ono was a good wife and mother. After Lennon's death, Ono and Sean Lennon visited Smith in Liverpool, where she was staying at her sister Anne's house because of a heart condition. She said, "Sean is like John in every way – looks and manner – and he has got John's sense of humour. As long as he keeps away from music, he will be all right".

Smith died on 6 December 1991, at the age of 85, while being cared for at home by Lynne Varcoe, an auxiliary nurse. During the night, other carers were present. On the day of her death, Smith collapsed in the bathroom, so Varcoe helped her to her bed, where Smith started Cheyne-Stoking. According to Varcoe, her last words were, "Hello, John".

Although the oldest of the Stanley girls, Smith was the last to die. Cynthia, Sean and Ono attended her funeral on 12 December 1991: McCartney, Harrison and Starr all sent floral arrangements. Despite the animosity between Cynthia and Smith, Varcoe remembered Cynthia crying throughout the whole funeral, and said that Smith had always spoken positively about her. Smith was cremated at the Poole Crematorium and the reception was at the Harbour Heights Hotel. The whereabouts of her ashes is unknown. Ono put Smith's house up for sale on the same day as the cremation; it was demolished in 1994, so a four-bedroomed house could be built on the site. The new house on the site is now called 'Imagine'.