February 10, 2003. Copyright, 2003, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Yoko Ono turns 70
By Mark Samms

LONDON, February 10, Graphic News:  Yoko Ono Lennon approaches her 70th birthday this month as the worldÕs best-known widow. But she realises only too well that that is one of the more benevolent descriptions that have attached themselves to her during the course of an extraordinary life.

She has been vilified as the person primarily responsible for the break-up of The Beatles and derided as a conceptual artist of average talent who rode to prominence on the shirt-tails of one of the worldÕs most famous men.

There is some truth in these assertions, yet they do not tell the whole story. The relationships between The Beatles Ð and John Lennon and Paul McCartney in particular Ð were fraying long before Lennon sauntered into a London art exhibition in the mid-60s and came under the spell of the strange little woman who was staging it.

Yoko Ono had already established a reputation as an avant-garde artist and film-maker. Lennon was already easing away from the clamour and frenzy of life as a member of the most successful pop group the world had ever known and seeking another outlet for his creativity. They were heading inexorably towards each other.

For the 11 years of their marriage, he and Yoko were inseparable. Since her husband was gunned down outside their New York home in 1980, she has continued to make albums and take her art shows around the world, but most of her time has been spent developing LennonÕs estate, protecting his reputation and keeping the flame alive.

This has led to frequent clashes with Paul McCartney, and the animosity between the two remains as bitter it has ever been. But it does not appear to have dented Yoko OnoÕs serenity as she hides from the world behind wrap-around shades.

After all, little ego clashes of this kind are hardly likely to register on the equanimity of a woman who managed to survive the incendiary bombing of Japan as a child, and continuous attacks on her reputation and motives for almost 40 years.

And Another ThingÉ
In the 50s, Yoko Ono attended the Sarah Lawrence College in New York Ð the same establishment attended by the late Linda McCartney about ten years later.
/ENDS

Sources: www.yoko-ono.com, www.instantkarma.com, www.rollingstone.com, www.absolutearts.com