Eleanor Rigby (1895 to 10^th October 1939)

Eleanor Rigby is a song on the Revolver album. It was written mostly by Paul McCartney however the working title for the song was Miss Daisy Hawkins.

Here I am at the grave of Eleanor Rigby (which was discovered in 1980 and now receives countless visitors from all over the globe.) Who knows if the name rose from his Paul McCartney’s subconscious as he put the song together. John and Paul used to sunbath and play in the graveyard. Paul said the name "Eleanor" came from the actress Eleanor Bron (who had starred with the Beatles in the film Help!) and "Rigby" came from a shop "Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers" however later he confessed it could have been influenced by the grave. At the weekends people are intermittently turning up to see this grave.

Eleanor was born in Liverpool in 1895. A register from Liverpool City Hospital (sold in 2008 for £115,000) stated an "E. Rigby" was a scullery maid. There are no surviving pictures of her. She was born on Vale Road which backs onto Menlove Avenue where John Lennon grew up. She was married at 35 (very late in those days) to a much older railway foreman. Eleanor could not have children and died a month after the outbreak of World War II from a brain haemorrhage aged 44.

The song mentions “Father McKenzie” and just a few feet away from Eleanor's grave a McKenzie family grave. Though Paul McCartney said he picked "McKenzie" from the telephone book he said it could have surfaced from the soup of his mind.

Another Merseyside legend is buried in the graveyard at the rear of the cemetery - Bob Paisley, the phenomenally successful and popular football manager.