John Lennon (1940-1980)

     John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool England. He was born to a man named Alfred Lennon and a woman named Julia Stanley. Alfred left the family when John was little and Julia gave John to her sister Mimi, who cared for John throughout his childhood. John lived with his aunt, Mimi, but his birth mother Julia always came to visit him. She was the person that taught him the banjo and started his love for music.
   John attended Quarry Bank High School, which is where he started a band called "The Quarrymen". "The Quarrymen" eventually evolved into the famous rock group called "The Beatles". While he was attending high school, his mother was run over by a police officer and died. This affected John a lot. He wrote many songs after her and named his first son, Julian, after her.
    After attending Quarry Bank High School, John Lennon went to college at Liverpool School of Art. This is where he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell. John also met a future Beatles band member, Stu Sutcliffe. Stu did not stay with the band for long.  John eventually dropped out of college. He said that he did this because he wanted to work on his band. 
     Four years after getting married to Cynthia, John met his other future wife Yoko Ono at an exhibition of her art. They fell in love and John left his wife, Cynthia, to live with Yoko in 1968. Yoko and John worked on many protests for peace including: the bed-in in Montreal, billboards all over the country, and the bed-in in Amsterdam. In 1973, Yoko kicked John out of the house, so he went to live in L.A., where he began his "lost weekend" which lasted for a year and a half. Eventually, John and Yoko got back together.
          John Lennon died on December 8, 1980. He was shot five times, in the back and shoulder. He was shot by Mark David Chapman who says today that John would have forgiven him for shooting him. Mark David Chapman was arrested and has been denied parole six times. When John Lennon died, the world lost a great singer, activist, and songwriter. His name will never be forgotten and his music will remain legendary in centuries to come.

    Sorces:
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.az.us:2048/brc/fullwithresults?vid=3&hid=11&sid=6e3f5e74-56da-4e08-891e-3cc8a0b86401%40sessionmgr13
http://www.imbd.com/name/nm0006168/bio
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/954617.stm
http://www.biographyonline.net/music/john-lennon.html
http://www.u-shistory.com/pages/h3764.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lennon.htm
http://www.live4ever.uk.com/2010/04/the-vatican-forgives-john-lennon-for-bigger-than-jesus-comments/