Another Girl: Maureen Starkey

Note: This biography originally appears on Cyn & Mo website, written by me and copied here. Used with my own permission with a little editing.

Mary Cox was born on August 4, 1946 to Joseph and Florence Cox in Liverpool, England. Mary was an only child. Her father was a ship's steward while her mother was a sugar packer. By the time Mary was 15, she started to call herself 'Maureen' and decided to come a hairdresser and manicurist, getting a job at Ashley Dupre Continental Hair and Beauty Salon. With a love of music, Maureen became the Cavern club regular where she saw her local favorite band, The Beatles and her then boyfriend Johnny 'Guitar' Bryne's band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, with Ringo playing drums at the time.

By August, 1962, while Rory Storm and the Hurricanes' traveled to Hamburg, Germany and Butins Holiday Camp, Maureen's relationship with Johnny fizzled out and Maureen had a crush on Ringo who had just joined the Beatles. One day she saw him outside the Cavern club and rushed over to get his autograph, which Ringo obliged. While he was driving away, Maureen wrote down his car's license plate number to which she had mesmerized until the day she died. Some time after that, while at the Cavern, a friend dared Maureen to kiss Paul McCartney while he was coming out of the dressing room- she did so and waited for Ringo so she can kiss him too! A couple of weeks later, Ringo asked Maureen out for a dance before taking her and a friend home, which happened a few more times until Ringo went to see Maureen at work about having to go out with him alone. During his days off from working with The Beatles, Ringo would spend his free time with Maureen in Liverpool. But fans got jealous and would harrass Maureen at the Cavern (Cynthia got the same treatment) and at her job to the point when she quit. By that time, The Beatles were a success and in 1963, Maureen traveled with Ringo, Paul, and Jane to Greece while Brian Epstein insisted to keep their relationship quiet. In 1964, Ringo went to the hospital to have his tonsils removed, Maureen traveled to London to visit him, bringing ice cream along with her and their relationship was now known to the public. In January of 1965, Ringo proposed to Maureen while at a nightclub and on February 11, 1965, Ringo and Maureen got married in London, England with their parents, John and Cynthia Lennon, George Harrison, and Brian Epstein serving as best man; Maureen was pregnant by the time of the wedding. Ringo and Maureen celebrated their honeymoon at the home of the Beatles' lawyer, posing for photographers with a brief mini press conference for a few days before The Beatles' started to film their second movie, Help! On September 13, 1965, Maureen gave birth to Zak with Ringo present after they moved into their first family home in Weybridge in Surrey, England. By 1966, The Beatles decided to quit touring and focus on their families and recording in the studio. In 1967, they all got into the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's teachings about Transcendental Meditation however Ringo and Maureen took the time to welcome their second child, Jason, who was born on August 19, 1967, into their family. The following year, the Beatles stopped studying and focused on music and business after the death of Brain Epstein and were slowly breaking up until 1970 when the official announcement came out. During that year, Ringo and Maureen had happy news when they welcomed their third child, a daughter Lee Parkin, into the family on November 11, 1970 in London, England. Ringo was depressed after the Beatles' split up, throwing himself into alcohol, infidelities, his solo music career as well as working with other musicians, and film which caused a rift into their marriage, while Maureen turned to George Harrison. On July 15, 1975, Ringo and Maureen's marriage was finalized in divorce, although Maureen did not want a divorce she let it happen. Ringo and Maureen remained close as friends and parents to their three children. 

Maureen met Isaac Tigrett in 1971 when she took her children to Hard Rock Cafe in London, becoming friends. After her divorce from Ringo, they started to see each other and by the early 1980s Isaac and Maureen were living together with homes in England, Texas, Tennessee, and California, often traveling in the United States by train that was owned by the Tigrett family. On January 4, 1987, Maureen gave birth to Augusta King Tigrett and two years later, on May 27, 1989, Isaac and Maureen got married in Monte Carlo. In April of 1994, Maureen collapsed during the opening of her husband's new restaurant/nightclub House of Blues in Los Angeles, California and was diagnosed with leukemia. In October, Maureen went to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington where her son, Zak, donated his white blood cells and bone marrow for his mother as his type closely matched hers while Lee helped take care of her and her mother Florence helped looked after Augusta; Ringo visited Maureen frequently. On December 30, 1994, Maureen died peacefully with her mother Florence, Isaac, Ringo, and her children at her bedside.