Info on Lennon's Lost Sister!
JNash...@aol.com
August 24 1998
By JAMIE PYATT
POP legend John Lennon searched worldwide for his lost sister for years - but
all the time the secret to her identity was locked away in a battered tin box
hidden in a wardrobe.
Lennon launched the heartbreak hunt after learning of her existence just as
the Beatles became the world's biggest band.
He spent a fortune on an army of private detectives - and the search became
one of the greatest obsessions of his life.
He even revealed his turmoil about his sister's life in the shadows by writing
the haunting ballad You've Got To Hide Your Love Away.
But he failed to track down Ingrid Pedersen before he was shot dead by crazed
fan Mark Chapman.
Amazingly Ingrid - given up for adoption by Lennon's mum Julia as a baby
because she couldn't cope - found out she was the star's sister in 1966, 14
YEARS before he was killed.
Ingrid told how her adoptive mother Margaret stunned her by blurting out:
"I've got to tell you - you are adopted. You are a half-sister to John
Lennon." But Margaret was terrified Ingrid would be lured by the Beatle's
fame - and leave home. So rather than hurt the "mum" she loved, she simply
let sleeping dogs lie.
Ingrid, whose adoptive dad is Norwegian sailor Peder Pedersen, told The Sun
yesterday: "I couldn't hurt her - I couldn't step from the dark."
She made a solemn vow to herself that she would do nothing until Margaret
died. That happened five weeks ago when Margaret had a heart attack.
And Ingrid said: "Now at last I can admit who I am - the little sis John loved
but could never find. I kept all this secret for the sake of my mum. But now
she's dead I want to find my real family."
Julia Lennon secretly gave birth to her first daughter, Victoria Elizabeth, in
a Salvation Army hostel in 1945, when John was four. But crucially, what John
never discovered during his search is that the infant's name was immediately
changed to Ingrid Pedersen by her adoptive parents.
Divorcee Ingrid, 53, said: "It made me basically untraceable. "
Ingrid learned of her link with Lennon when she was 21.
But it was not until two years ago she decided to seek ultimate proof of the
blood connection.
She had moved back with her adoptive parents in Chandlers Ford, Hants, after a
failed marriage. And she knew a tin box kept by Margaret in her bedroom
wardrobe contained family papers.
Trembling, she opened it while no one else was around - and flicked through
the documents nervously until she found the one she was looking for.
It was a yellowing, dog-eared adoption paper that had been issued by Liverpool
County Court to her new parents, Norwegian sailor Peder Pedersen and
Liverpudlian Margaret. Ingrid said:
"There it was in black and white. There was my name and birthdate - Lillian
Ingrid Maria Pedersen, born on the 19th June 1945. And above that were the
three words I had been searching for, Victoria Elizabeth LENNON. They leapt at
me.
The court papers formally said my name had been changed and my real mother's
name, Julia Lennon, was also there."
Ingrid, who files patients' records at a Southampton maternity hospital,
added: "I felt a great warmth and a shiver come over me at the same time.
Then the tears just flowed.
"At last I knew it was true. THE John Lennon was my big bruv. I was the sister
of the world's most famous rock star. Little old me - a bloody hospital clerk.
It was like finding buried treasure."
Ingrid hid the document under her jumper - and photo-copied it at work before
replacing it.
Her thoughts were turning more and more to her lost life as the Beatle's
sister, especially as she had the papers to prove she was flesh and blood and
not a crank.
And now her mother's death has given her the chance to step forward.
The tin container Ingrid opened turned out to be a Pandora's Box. It told the
remarkable story of a life that began when Julia Lennon had her in the Sally
Army infirmary, a mile away from the family home in Newcastle Street,
Liverpool.
The date was June 19 1945. Julia's four-year-old son John knew nothing of the
birth.
Julia had parted from John's wayward dad Alf, a liner steward who jumped ship
in America in 1943. And the following year she had a fling with a handsome
Welsh soldier, Taffy Williams.
Artillery officer Williams, of Moreton, Wirral, chatted her up while she
worked as a waitress in a tearoom on famous Penny Lane.
He is believed to be Ingrid's father - and offered to stay with Julia to bring
up the girl.
But when he refused to take on John as well, Julia told him it was all or
nothing. He vanished and has not been heard of since. Julia's tough dad George
"Pop" Stanley was worried about his wild-living daughter - and suggested her
baby should be adopted.
Julia also worked as a cinema usherette and had befriended film fan Margaret
Pedersen, 25. She had been married for a year to seaman Peder, then 38.
But she could not have children - and when Julia told her that her baby was up
for adoption, she jumped at the chance.
The Pedersens were handed the child - and renamed her. Incredibly, Ingrid and
Lennon lived for 11 years just a few miles apart in Liverpool before the
Pedersens moved south. Julia Lennon was killed in 1958 when she was knocked
down by a car. John did not find out about his lost sister until six years
later, when an aunt told him about the Sally Army birth and adoption.
At the time Beatlemania was breaking out around the world. But John, who knew
about two other half-sisters his mum had after Ingrid's birth, set about
trying to find his missing relative.
He got hold of her birth certificate and found she had been adopted by a
couple called Pedersen. But Liverpool County Court refused to show him the
adoption papers - and he never knew of Ingrid's name change. Helped by
Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Lennon sent teams of private detectives to
scour records in Britain and Norway. He placed ads begging his sister to get
in touch - and stories about his search were printed worldwide.
But all the time the investigators were trying to find VICTORIA Pedersen - who
did not exist.
Determined John, who was 40 when he was killed, kept up the search for two
years. But despite the might of the Beatles machine, it was hopeless.
At around the same time Ingrid was set to marry her sweetheart, mechanic David
Dennis.
But she was having trouble locating her birth certificate, which she needed
for the marriage. She was then living in lodgings after rowing with her mum,
who did not approve of Dennis. But the mother found out what she was doing -
and in a panic asked Ingrid to see her urgently.
She told the shocked girl she was Lennon's sister. But Ingrid said: "Quite
honestly, it didn't matter to me one bit at the time. I wasn't even a Beatles
fan.
Presley, Billy Fury and even the Dave Clark Five. What affected me was the
fact I was adopted and no one had told me."
But Ingrid's fascination grew over the years until she could think of little
else. Today she can finally tell the world her secret. And she said:
"Revealing who I am will take a huge weight off my shoulders."
Š The Sun 1998. Our lawyers are watching.
Š News Group Newspapers Ltd, 1998
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