Julia Baird - Later Years

Later Years

Baird married Allen Baird in 1968 and moved to Belfast, but kept her family history a secret. The Bairds had three children together: Nicholas (b. 1971), Sara (b. 1972) and David (b. 1980), but got divorced in 1981. Baird went to university and gained an MA in Philosophy of Education, and during her time there she spent a year out in France, hitch-hiked around Europe, and protested against the war in Vietnam in Paris alongside Simone de Beauvoir. Baird later taught French and English before working as a special needs teacher with teenagers in deprived areas of Chester, until she retired to write books and become a director of Cavern City Tours.

Baird and Jackie later met their half-sister Ingrid Pedersen for the first time when they were present at the ceremony to place a Blue Heritage plaque on Mimi's house, commemorating the fact that Lennon had lived there. Baird and Jackie had only recently found out who Pedersen was, after being told by journalist Bill Smithies of the Liverpool Echo newspaper. Baird was shocked that Pedersen did not look anything like the Stanley or the Lennon family, as she had pale blue eyes and fair hair.

After releasing the book, John Lennon, My Brother—written with Giuliano, and a foreword by McCartney—Baird travelled to New York during 1989 to appear at a Beatles' convention, and was asked if she could prove she was really Lennon's half-sister. Baird declined, saying she was not going to produce her passport, and the audience would just have to take her word for it. In 2000, Baird was present at the unveiling of six road signs, erected on major routes into Liverpool, saying, "Liverpool welcomes you - to the birthplace of THE BEATLES", and in October she planted a tree in Liverpool's Peace Gardens to commemorate Lennon's birthday.

Baird stopped working and retired in 2004, and published a book called Imagine This - Growing up with my brother John Lennon, in February 2007. Baird and Jackie have both publicly said they wished Lennon had "never seen a guitar", and Baird can not listen to Lennon's music, as she finds it too upsetting.

From 28 to 30 September 2007, Durness held the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival which was attended by Baird (who read from Lennon's writings and her own books) and Stanley Parkes (Lennon's Scottish cousin). Parkes said, "Me and Julia are going to be going to the old family croft to tell stories". Musicians, painters and poets from across the UK performed at the festival. Baird now lives in Chester with her partner, Roger Keys.

Baird claims she was never told that her mother was buried in the Allerton Cemetery, in Liverpool, although the graveyard's location is approximately 1.19 miles east of 1 Blomfield Road. The gravesite was unmarked, but was recently identified as "CE (Church of England) 38-805". The Stanley family finally put a headstone on her mother's grave. The headstone reads:

Mummy
John
Victoria
Julie
Jackie.